Iron Fist, Iron Warrior
by SirFozzie
Summary: A cross over with the world of Street Fighter (from the old RPG, so there's a few changes from the vid game continuity), Ranma and Akane are out of Narima, and the Street Fighter Circuit will never be the same! Can they make it all the way to World Warrio
1. Ranma Saotome, Street Fighter

Before I start, the standard copyrights, Ranma 1/2 is done by Rumiko  
Takahashi. In no way shape or form am I challenging her right to the  
people contained here in.  
  
Chapter One: "Ranma Saotome, Street Fighter"  
  
  
Ranma looked up from his breakfast, eyes widening at his  
father's words. "You want me to join WHAT??"  
  
"I want you to join the Street Fighter Circuit. In past times,  
the heirs of the Saotome Anything Goes School of Martial-Arts tested  
themselves by seeking out the masters of other disciplines and meeting  
them in battle. That's where several of the techniques in the school  
were taken from." Genma replied, face set in stone, "And now, with  
fighters from around the world, the Street Fighter tour has taken  
hold. I want you to spend at least 12 months on the tour before you  
return."  
  
Ranma didn't mind the traveling, he had done plenty of that  
with Genma on various training trips in the past, in the past. Now  
that he thought of it, it wouldn't be so bad. Sure, he'd miss all of  
his friends, but the prospect of at least a year of peace with no  
Shampoo latching onto him at every opportunity, no crazy plots from  
Kodachi, missing Ucchan, and no Akane,. that settled it.  
  
"Well, since you've given me no choice in the matter, I guess I'll get  
ready. When do you want me to start?" Ranma thought to himself, "Man  
oh man, a year without that baka smashing me, or worse yet, trying to  
feed me! It'll be heaven adding in being able to train on the road."  
His dream was quickly smashed by Genma's next few words.  
  
"You won't be leaving alone. Mr. Tendo and I decided it would  
be best if Akane went with you on this trip. She needs the work just  
as much as you do,." Ranma wasn't expecting that. His jaw suddenly  
dropped, and his eyes bugged out of his head.  
  
"You WHAT? YOU WANT ME TO GO AROUND FIGHTING WITH THAT MACHO  
KAWAIKUNE TOMBOY FOLLOWING ME AROUND? THAT MACHO CHICK? WHAT WOULD  
HAPPEN IF SHE ACTUALLY TRIED TO COOK?!!" Ranma screamed at Genma. The  
proverbial "uh-oh" drop of sweat appeared Genma's face, not from his  
son's rant. Ranma froze. He slowly turned around, only to hear the  
three words he dreaded most. "RANMA NO BAKA!" followed by a wooden  
mallet swinging upwards, connecting underneath the chin and sending  
him flying through the roof.  
  
Akane, still shaking, had only caught the last few words of  
Ranma's rant. She turned to Genma, who seemed to visibly shrink away  
from the angry Akane. "Now. What brought this on?"  
  
Genma's quick, hurried explanation drew a "W--H--A--T?? " shout from  
Akane, the resulting explosion of her temper literally blowing the  
roof of the Tendo Dojo off, sending it flipping into the air. Luckily  
it landed back in place, although it was upside down.  
  
(The scene changes to the Nerima Stadium, where an interested crowd of  
about a thousand watches on.)  
  
"It seems pretty simple," Ranma thought to himself, Although  
the fights were taking place in a ring, which would restrict his  
movement somewhat, the fighters he had seen so far, while decent,  
would be no match for him. (Or so his overblown ego tried to convince  
him)  
  
He had drawn the third fight out of six, and was competing  
against someone named Jenakaya, whose style was listed as Capioera.  
Ranma scratched his head, trying to remember the lessons that Genma  
gave him a while ago on different styles, but the only thing that came  
into his mind was that Capioera was a style that used several dance  
moves. "Heh. When I get in there. There won't be any dancing."  
  
Since the fight was local. he had trained at the Dojo. Akane  
still wasn't happy with the way she had been railroaded into this, she  
tried to protest, saying she couldn't afford to miss a year of  
school,. that she didn't want to go fight, finally Soun just told her  
that she was going. and she would have to uphold the honor of the  
Tendo school of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Everyone in the house had  
avoided Akane since then.  
  
Just then the second fight ended,. the Sanbo fighter had  
finished off his smaller, faster opponent with a devastating  
Suplex/Throw combo, "Well here goes. My first fight. and my first  
win!" Ranma thought, stretching out the last few kinks, as he waited  
for the medics to revive the Wu Shu fighter. Then, walking to the  
ring, he could dimly hear Genma, Ukyou, and the others let out a  
cheer.  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen, our third bout of the afternoon is  
fought in the Freestyle division. First of all, he is making his  
Street Fighting debut today, he trains here in Nerima at the Tendo  
Dojo, he trains in the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts,  
Ranma Saotome!" Ranma raised one hand acknowledging the polite  
applause from the crowd, and then focused on his opponent who stood  
motionless in the opposite corner.  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen, his opponent today is a Rank 3 Street  
Fighter. He comes into today's fight with a Street Fighter Freestyle  
record of 8 wins, 7 by way of knockout, against only two losses, and  
one draw, a master of the South American art of Capioera, Jenakaya!!"  
The lanky man raised a hand to acknowledge the applause from the  
crowd, Ranma tensed up slightly, as the referee called the two men  
into the center of the ring.  
  
"Ok, gentlemen, I know you've been briefed on the rules before  
today's fight. I just want to make sure you got them. There will be  
three five-minute rounds, no lethal moves, biting or gouging. If in my  
judgement you are unable to defend yourself effectively. I will stop  
the fight. If you wish to submit, tap the mat three times. We have a  
ringside doctor with the authority to stop the match if need be." the  
ref motioned to both men. "Bow. and prepare to fight"  
  
Ranma covered one fist in his hand and bowed, The opponent's  
eyes met, while Jenakaya twisted his body into a complicated bow.  
Then, the two fighters retreated to their corners. Ranma's mind was  
ablaze with strategies, attacks, and possible counters, but one notion  
had already been destroyed. Capioera wasn't just a "Dance art", He  
could see the hidden strength in Jenakaya's flexibility.  
  
"Fighters, ready?" came the call from the referee. Ranma  
nodded slightly and took a deep breath, controlling his ki as best as  
he could before he assumed his set position. Jenakaya also nodded as  
he assumed an unorthodox guard stance. "BEGIN!"  
  
Ranma decided to go for the early knockout surprise, charging at  
Jenakaya,. hoping to startle him with a roundhouse right at the  
beginning. The Capioera fighter had other ideas. In a sensational move  
he leaped into the air and bringing himself into a tight spiral,  
striking like a cannonball, smashing himself into the surprised Ranma  
who was rocked back and knocked down from the force of the blow. Ranma  
blinked a couple of times, as he kipped up to his feet.  
  
"Ok, that didn't work. What now?" He thought to himself as he  
assumed the guard stance again, circling his opponent warily "He won't  
catch me off guard with that move twice," Leaping into the air with a  
spinning round house, followed by a jumping side kick that caught the  
lanky Capioera fighter in a glancing blow. The impact pushed his  
opponent against the ropes, but before Ranma could follow up and press  
his advantage, The canny fighter used the ropes to bring him back  
towards Ranma and took him down with a foot sweep.  
  
Ranma got back to his feet quickly with a kipup and again  
waited, trying to seek a hole in the Capioera fighter's defenses. The  
two traded punches for the next few minutes, trading bruises as the  
sweat flew Ranma got a temporary advantage when he connected solidly  
with a Tenshin-Amaguri-ken. However, the bell rang before he could  
attack his dizzy opponent , somewhat disappointed in his performance,  
Ranma slumped in the corner,. Genma quickly stepped in to the ring  
and waved a towel in Ranma's face to cool him off, then mopped up the  
sweat, and let Ranma catch his breath for a few seconds.  
  
"He's better then I thought he'd be, faster, more agile. I  
just can't seem to get a solid blow in." Ranma said, taking a sip of  
Gatorade Genma gave him, closing his eyes, and starting to prepare  
mentally for the next five minutes.  
  
"Of course not, boy, this is a whole new level! You have to be  
prepared to fight, to change your whole style based on the way your  
opponent fights! This guy, you got to stick in close. he's too fast  
for you to fight him on the outside!" Genma tried to explain. Ranma  
opened his eyes and looked straight at his opponent, who looked back,  
face set as if it was in stone. "You can do it this round, take him  
out" Genma finished as the warning buzzer sounded.  
  
Ranma grinned at his father. "No problem. if he gets near me  
this round, he's going to get knocked out." He stood up, as the bell  
for the second round rang.  
  
Five minutes later, a bruised, battered Ranma Saotome sat in  
his corner again. He hadn't been able to knock his opponent out, in  
fact Jenakaya had time and time again attacked Ranma just after he had  
failed to hit, Jenakaya had landed counterattack after counterattack,  
Genma was none too pleased. but he tried to put on a good face. "Ok,  
you've gone 10 minutes, just five more now. If it goes the distance,  
he'll probably win it from the judges. You've got to go all out. Knock  
him out and win! Forget defense if you want to win!"  
  
As the bell rang for the third round, Ranma staggered to his  
feet slowly. "One way or the other, it won't last this round, Pop.  
One of us won't finish this round", then came out to start the final  
round.  
  
And indeed Ranma's style had changed, no longer was he sitting  
back, waiting for Jenakaya to attack. Ranma charged in, keeping  
Jenakaya from using his speed and agility advantage. Ranma flailed  
away with kicks and punches. Jenakaya landed punch after punch in  
return, Ranma got the worst of the damage in the exchange but  
something in him refused to let himself go down.  
  
Finally he saw the advantage he needed, following up another  
Tenshin-Amaguri-Ken by grabbing Jenakaya's shirt in one hand, and  
rolling backwards, using a foot in his opponent's midsection to throw  
Jenakaya, the Capioera fighter managed to land on his back safely,  
although stunned. Ranma was on him like a wild animal. As Jenakaya  
staggered to his feet he was met with a jumping snap kick that bounced  
him off the ropes, to fall face first on the mat. The referee stopped  
the fight there As a spent, bruised Ranma sagged against the ropes  
himself.  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of this fight, at 2 minutes  
and 52 seconds of the third and final round. by Knockout, RANMA  
SAOTOME!" The fans cheered. That was one hell of a fight.  
  
An hour later, the cheers were for someone else. A bone tired  
Ranma found himself being looked over by Dr. Tofu. He Tofu said that  
Ranma would have a good set of bruises for a week or so. but he came  
through nicely, considering the punishment he had taken.  
  
Back at the Dojo, Ranma was lying on his futon, trying to get  
his body to stop aching. Genma was on the phone, while Mr. Tendo was  
trying to keep all of Ranma's fiancees from attending him. Ranma just  
enjoyed the peace and quiet until a near silent presence came to his  
attention. Turning his head just slightly as Akane came into view.  
  
"Hi." He didn't say much more, for the simple act of talking  
was draining right now. Akane came walking in, face still a little  
white from what she had seen earlier. "You ok?" she asked softly,  
"Hurts, but I won." was his reply.  
  
"You know Ranma, you really have to learn to duck better," she  
tried to put on a brave face and smile. "Every time he landed one, he  
seemed to land three." Ranma muttered quietly, closing his eyes,  
remembering the fight. Where did he go wrong?  
  
"Do you know why? It's because he linked his moves together,  
seriously Ranma, it was almost a move of its own, just it was made up  
of two different moves linked together smoothly. Yours were more  
powerful, but until the end, you were too "stop and go" with your  
moves." Akane tried to explain. She had watched the match with a  
keener eye then she would like to admit, seeing Ranma hurt wasn't a  
good thing.  
  
"I'll try to remember that next fight," Ranma said. He then  
opened his eye, bolting to an upright position. What he saw shocked  
him. Akane, the kawaikune, was crying? "Akane, what's the matter?" He  
tried to keep the surprise out of his voice.  
  
As if the words had released an internal dam of emotions, the  
words came flooding from Akane. "I don't know how you could go through  
with that, and now I'm supposed to go through with this too? I can't  
even hit you when we fight. how am I supposed to win a Street Fighter  
match?"  
  
Ranma's eyes widened. For too long, Akane had seemed like a  
block of marble. strong, yet proud and unyielding, but that pride had  
taken a major blow today. She had been scheduled for a fight in two  
weeks, in Osaka,  
  
"Akane, it'll work out, I promise. I'll show you some things I  
learned in the ring today, you'll be ready for your fight. You're a  
decent martial artist, you're the heir to the Tendo School of  
Anything-Goes Martial Arts, and you just need to keep control of your  
temper." The smile he received was worth every bruise on his face and  
body. Sighing to himself, he asked himself "Why can't more times be  
like this, She's so cute when she smiles."  
  
"Will you spar with me Ranma?" Akane asked quietly. Ranma  
shook his head slightly. He didn't like hitting girls, but if he could  
teach Akane how to handle herself in the ring, where the rules were a  
lot different then what she was used to, then he guessed it was worth  
it, "Yeah, I promise. Just give me a day or two to recover, ok?"  
  
Still smiling, Akane said ok, and quietly took her leave.  
Ranma lay his head back on the futon, and once again ran over the  
fight in his head, this time he was smiling, "She's right, I was real  
jerky. I have to work on linking my moves better if I'm going to  
continue." And with that thought, Ranma fell asleep a winner, in more  
ways then one. 


	2. Akane's First Fight

Hello again everybody, 2nd chapter time. All C&C, MSTings and coupons,  
and coupons for free pizza are welcome at yelloped@attbi.com .  
Standard warnings apply, Ranma 1/2 and it's characters belong to  
Rumiko Takahashi. No disrespect intended. The Street Fighter series is  
a trademark of Capcom, and no disrespect intended there either.  
  
"Iron Heart, Iron Warrior" Chapter Two. "Akane's First Fight"  
  
Ranma pulled himself groggily off his futon. He definitely was  
not what people would call a "morning person" But a promise was a  
promise. There was only ten days to go before Akane was to take part  
in her first Street Fighter match. He had promised her that he would  
train and spar with her, make sure she was ready.  
  
Ranma quickly stood up, stretching out all the kinds from his  
muscles. Quickly dressing, he came down the stairs and grabbed a quick  
bite to eat. He decided to avoid Mr. Tendo today, the father was  
suffering from alternating bouts of "I want my girl to be a worthy  
heir to my school," and "My poor baby's going to get slaughtered" and  
was not fit company to be around. He didn't know how Kasumi and Nabiki  
could put up with it.  
  
Slipping out of the house, he walked over to the dojo, where  
from the sounds of contact, he guessed Akane already was. As he  
stepped into the dojo, Akane was rhythmically punching the post,  
shaking its foundations with each blow. Ranma studied Akane's form  
critically. It still had some holes in it, but she had improved  
meteorically in the months since he had arrived.  
  
Akane finished her set, and turned to Ranma, "Sorry I didn't  
wait, I guess I had a lot of nervous energy to work off" she said,  
somewhat flustered that she hadn't noticed him entering. She blushed  
slightly, thinking to herself "He's probably going to say I'm not  
worthy of being taught or something. I don't know if I could be ready  
for what he went through in ten days, OR even ten months."  
  
Ranma grinned slightly, the bruises from his encounter with  
the Capioera fighter just about gone. "Don't worry. You were doing  
just fine. But it's not basic form I want to work on with you." He  
started setting up poles, letting them lie flat against the ground,  
setting up small quadrants of space just big enough to balance on.  
Akane watched on, trying to understand what Ranma was doing.  
  
Ranma then stepped into one of the areas of space, balancing  
on one foot. "You reminded me after my fight that my form was jerky,  
that I finished one move and then started another, instead of  
combining them into one flowing move. Now, this is an exercise I used  
to do with Pop."  
  
Ranma then threw a snap kick, landing his foot in another  
free square. Traveling back and forth, twisting his body, throwing  
punches and kicks at an imaginary opponent. First slowly, then faster,  
Ranma built up a rhythm, finishing the kata and stepping out of the  
square. "Ok. Now I want you to try this. Don't worry if you make  
mistakes. Just relax your muscles and try to control each and every  
step."  
  
Akane wasn't sure she could handle it, he had made it look so  
effortless! She stepped into the first square that Ranma had  
indicated, and started throwing kicks and punches has he had. On her  
third kick, her foot landed a bit too far forward, and she nearly  
slipped as she stepped on a pole. She repositioned herself, and  
started again.  
  
This time it wasn't four moves before her body betrayed her  
again and she hit a pole. She tensed up, waiting for the derisive  
comment from Ranma. If he made a comment, she swore she would either  
run from the dojo, ashamed, or smash his head with a mallet. She  
wasn't quite sure which one she'd do, just that it'd be one or the  
other  
  
"That's ok Akane. I did worse then that my first time myself"  
Ranma was surprised at how soothing his voice sounded. Indeed he had  
been two months before he could do more then five moves without  
tripping. The seeds of talent were there, now how to call them forth  
and make them grow? An idea came into his mind. He grabbed a yellow  
and black headband that Ryouga had left after his last fight with  
Ranma, and placed it over Akane's eyes.  
  
"Ok, Akane, don't worry about speed, or how your form is, or  
even if I'm here. Just explore each square with your feet. Build a  
mental picture of the grid in your mind. Then start basic punches and  
steps. I don't care if you hit a pole, just continue the exercise."  
Ranma explained.  
  
Ranma stepped back and watched Akane start feeling her way  
around the grind, cursing slightly to himself that Ryouga had gotten  
himself lost again. Ryouga seemed to help Akane with her training, and  
Ranma guessed it was worth the glares from Ryouga or the bites of  
P-Chan if it helped Akane.  
  
Part of him wanted to rush to Mr. Tendo and make him call off  
the match. As much as he would deny it if anyone asked him straight  
out, he had become fond of Akane. He feared that she would not be  
ready in time for the fight, she could not be ready in time. But the  
inner voice inside of him said, "If you try hard enough to help her,  
she WILL be ready."  
  
After about ten minutes of exploration, Akane started throwing  
punches and stepping from open space to open space. Her form was  
stilted at first, denied the sense of sight, she was uneasy. At the  
beginning, maybe one punch in two would land correctly, with her foot  
in an opposite square. Soon Akane forgot everything around her, she  
didn't know if Ranma was watching or not, or if he was laughing at  
her. She didn't care. Her world was narrowed down to a series of open  
spaces, and the poles that divided them. Her punches became crisper,  
her feet came down with more confidence, and she decided to slowly  
increase her speed.  
  
Ranma watched, smiling slightly as Akane continued with her  
form, adding in an occasional kick to her repertoire of punches. He  
hadn't picked it up this fast. Genma had used "the grid" as a way to  
remind Ranma when he was a boy of humility. He could throw all the  
fancy punches and kicks he wanted, but without control, it was all  
just wasted motion.  
  
After five more minutes, Ranma clapped his hands twice,  
breaking into the near meditation state that Akane was in, "Ok, Akane,  
great job on that exercise." Ranma was surprised at how much he meant  
that complement. Akane definitely had picked the kata up quickly. If  
she learned everything else as fast, she might be a better fighter  
then he was. This notion was strictly rebelled against by a certain  
part of Ranma. No macho tomboy chick could be a better martial artist  
then he was!  
  
With an effort, Ranma fought down those emotions. "So I train  
harder and smarter." Another part of him thrilled that someone else  
could push him to a greater effort. He wanted to be the greatest  
martial artist he could be, and a constant challenge could only  
improve his form.  
  
Akane removed the sweatband, then used it to mop a couple of  
beads of sweat that had appeared on her face during the kata. She  
looked at the smile of approval on Ranma's face. "He, He approves?"  
was her confused thought. "I thought I was clumsy in that exercise and  
he's looks like I did something great and special." She smiled back,  
first weakly as she got her breath back, then an almost impudent grin.  
"So how'd I do, "sensei"?"  
  
Ranma laughed quietly at being called a sensei. "Not bad for a  
tomboy." Akane's face immediately darkened. Ranma realized his mistake  
and tried to rectify it. "Sorry, you did real well Akane." Damm, every  
time he tried to compliment her he said the wrong thing! "Let's try a  
couple more exercises before lunch ok?" he continued, trying to offer  
an olive branch before Akane decided to unleash the mallet of doom.  
  
Akane smiled again, this time a little guarded. "Ok, sensei".  
The two retrieved the poles and returned them to their proper places  
along the walls of the dojo." Ranma kept one pole as the two came back  
to the middle of the mat.  
  
"Ok, Akane. Most of the times you've fought, you've fought  
somebody with about the same reach as you. If you could reach them,  
they could reach you. That leads to a good balance of offense and  
defense, but every now and then you'll meet a fighter who has a  
greater reach then you. You have to adjust." Ranma explained, the  
memory of his fight coming back to him. He had tried to fight on the  
outside, but the Capioera fighter's longer arms and legs had the range  
to kick him when he couldn't apply an effective counter.  
  
"Assume your guard stance." Ranma told Akane, who quickly  
complied "For this exercise, I want you to be defensive only. Use your  
movement, and use your blocks to avoid the stick hitting you. Let's  
start at about half speed."  
  
First using the stick as if it was a leg, he probed Akane's  
defenses. Each time she either ducked under the "blow", or dodged it  
by moving slightly, or blocked it with her hands or feet. She even  
jumping over the bar one time when Ranma whirled the stick, spinning  
the pole as if it was a fighter doing a foot sweep. Ranma slowly  
counted cadence with each maneuver, speeding up as Akane got better at  
dodging each time, using as little movement as necessary to avoid the  
attack.  
  
As the morning gave way to the brightness of noon day, then  
slowly the sunlight fled before the approach of night, the two  
trained, going form one exercise to another seamlessly, only stopping  
briefly for water and a bowl of ramen cooked by Kasumi. Later in the  
day, Genma and Soun watched the two go through their exercises and  
sparring. The two men shared a private look that their children  
missed. Their smiles said "Our plan is working perfectly".  
  
Finally, Ranma called a halt to the activities. In their  
evening spar, Akane still wasn't able to land a solid move against  
Ranma, but it was no longer easy for Ranma to dodge her attacks, the  
two were covered in sweat by the time they were done.  
  
"That's enough for today Akane," Ranma said gently. Akane was  
tired, but she decided that she wouldn't admit it. She protested "Just  
a bit longer, I think I can get a good hit in" Ranma's ego kicked in  
before his brain engaged. "Nah, a sexless tomboy like you could never  
get a good shot in."  
  
Mr. Tendo and Genma shared winces at Ranma's thoughtless  
words. Ranma realized what he had said, and had time to close his eyes  
before the expected "Ranma no BAKA!" and the pain of a mallet shot  
that left him dazed. As he slowly picked himself off the ground and  
saw a steaming Akane walking back to the house, he closed his eyes and  
imagined that his mind was strangling his ego. He hadn't MEANT to say  
that, it had, well, just HAPPENED.  
  
Akane was on the bed, a few tears of anger staining her  
pillow, how dare that baka insult her like that! Part of her was mad  
at herself for hitting Ranma, reminding her that he didn't mean it.  
She wondered if Ranma would want to train with her any more, or if he  
had given up on her. She heard a soft knock at her door. Akane dried  
her tears, she didn't want Nabiki or Kasumi or her father catching her  
crying. "Come in, please" she said politely as she could.  
  
Ranma stuck his head in. "Hi, Akane. Mind if I come in for a  
moment?" He held his breath, expecting to be yelled at. Hearing no  
response from Akane, he came in, and shut the door behind him.  
"Listen, Akane, I want to apologize for what I said out there.  
Sometimes I speak before I think, and you know I don't think you are a  
sexless tomboy. You did well out there today."  
  
Akane was shocked. Ranma was being POLITE? her next few words  
came out in a stutter, due to her surprise. "Y-Y-you really think so?"  
she asked, an entirely different kind of shining in her eyes now.  
  
"Yes. In fact, tomorrow morning I was going to re go over the  
basics with you. But I think you have them down now. we'll do a lot of  
sparring and I'll show you what makes things different in a ring, We  
only have nine days left, and no "sensei" likes to have his student  
fight without being fully prepared." He joked, trying to get that  
smile back from Akane, Finally, the smile reappeared on Akane's face.  
  
"Ok. Tomorrow morning then?" Akane was thrilled. Ranma thought  
that she could not only be ready for a match, but could win? Tomorrow,  
she vowed to herself, I'll work doubly hard.  
  
"Tomorrow morning. Sleep well, Akane." Ranma said quickly,  
leaving the room, mind confused about the events of the last week or  
so. Akane spent a couple of minutes staring at the door, just as  
confused as Ranma was. She smiled one last time and said "Good Night,  
Ranma" to the open air.  
  
The next eight days passed in a blur it seemed. Each day Ranma  
would come up with a new exercise, or a way to toughen up a previous  
exercise, and challenge Akane to improve her technique. The two grew  
more comfortable together, Ranma still made the occasional gaffe, but  
none were as bad as the first day, and none were greeted with a mallet  
in return.  
  
The other fiancees of Ranma, who were already shocked by the  
announcement that Ranma and Akane would be leaving Nerima shortly for  
a full year so the two could travel on the Street Fighter circuit,  
were floored by how well Ranma and Akane were getting along. They  
wanted to try to distract Ranma, but Kodachi's one attack on Akane was  
foiled quickly by both Ranma and Akane. They didn't wish Akane ill,  
(well most of the time they didn't at least) they just wanted to keep  
the two at arm's length.  
  
Finally, the night before the fight, after the two had  
finished up a light training session, Ranma and Akane were sitting in  
the dojo. They had left one of the doors of the dojo open, so the  
light breeze could cool them off.  
  
"Akane? I need you to answer a question for me, and I need you  
to be honest. Do you feel you're ready for this? If you want, I can  
have your dad call the promoter and ask Mr. Nakajima to withdraw you  
from your fight. I don't want to see you get hurt if you're not  
ready." Ranma looked at the ground. He had done the best that he  
could, she had done much better then he could ever had anticipated,  
but still, there was that nagging doubt. And if she wasn't ready, she  
shouldn't fight. Period.  
  
Akane took a good couple minutes to think it over, this was a  
question she was afraid to ask of herself as well. She was still a  
little scared, but the last few days had given her some confidence.  
She still had a lot to learn, but she had learned a lot. It came down  
to asking herself if there was anything to be scared of. When it was  
put that way, there was an answer.  
  
"I may not win, but I am ready, Ranma. I will go in and fight  
tomorrow. The last few weeks have caused me to realize if I want to be  
the heir to my father's school, I have to test myself against others."  
Akane stated, the confidence in her words growing with each voice. She  
had a question of her own. "Ranma, will you be in my corner for the  
fight? Your dad may be the trained fighter, but he didn't train me.  
You did. and well, my dad would be too worried about what's happening  
that he wouldn't help me at all." She looked up, praying and hoping  
for the right answer from Ranma.  
  
Just like there was only one possible answer from Akane's  
point of view when asked if she was ready to fight, there was only one  
answer that Ranma could give. "Sure, I'll be in your corner for your  
fight. Just don't expect me to have any cold water to cool you off, I  
don't think that most of the crowd would believe my curse." Ranma  
grinned. "Get some sleep, Akane-chan. Tomorrow's a big day." Akane's  
eyes widened as Ranma left quietly, shutting the door behind him. He  
had called her Akane-chan?  
  
The next day dawned bright and clear, seemingly perfect. Ranma  
grabbed Nabiki and pulled her aside after breakfast. "Nabiki, I need  
you to do myself and Akane a favor. Tell your dad and my Pop that the  
time of Akane's fight has been changed from 6:30 to 7:45 ok?"  
  
Nabiki, being no mental slouch, had already picked up on  
Ranma's meaning. "No problem Ranma, no problem at all, since it's for  
my sister, I'll consider it a favor for you." Nabiki knew the way  
Ranma would react.  
  
"Oh great, a favor. how much is it going to cost Nabiki? 500?  
750? 1000 yen?" Ranma cursed mentally. Why did Nabiki have to be so  
mercenary about this?  
  
"No monetary cost, silly. I just need you to get a good  
quality tape of it for my dad. He'd be *crushed* if he missed his  
daughter's first professional fight. " And I can make a few copies to  
sell to people like Tatewaki Kuno and the other people who adore  
Akane, she thought to herself. For the price of a favor she'd do  
anyway for her sister's sake,. Ranma would guarantee a good profit for  
herself. Best of both worlds.  
  
"Sure, Fine" Ranma said, amazed that this favor came at no out  
of pocket cost. Maybe she wasn't so mercenary after all. "Akane and I  
are going to go out and get ready, tell them to meet us around 7:30  
ok?" Ranma then scooted out of the house before Nabiki could extort  
any more "favors" out of him.  
  
Akane soon joined Ranma outside, and the two spent an idle  
hour walking side by side, Akane's clothes for the match were carried  
by Ranma. Not a word was spoken for perhaps forty five minutes as the  
two were alone with their own thoughts. Finally, Akane broke the  
silence. "Do you think I have a chance to win tonight?", she asked.  
Despite the innocuous nature of her question, her heart seemingly had  
taken refuge in her throat. During the last few days, Ranma's opinion  
had become very important to her.  
  
"If I didn't think you had a chance to win, I wouldn't have  
let you fight, Akane. A lot depends on who you draw, and on how your  
style interacts against theirs. But you have a good chance to win."  
Ranma stated, plain from the heart. The thought of her getting hurt  
worried him now, more then it ever had before. He stole a look at  
Akane. "More importantly, do you think you can win."  
  
"Yes. After the last few days, anything's possible" Akane said  
with a smile. "After all, who would think we could go almost ten days  
without a fight?"  
  
Later that night, Akane didn't have that smile on her face  
anymore. she had drawn a Western Kickboxer from America, named Alex  
Rodriguez, who was also making his Street Fighting debut after making  
a moderate name for himself in the American kickboxing organizations.  
She had changed clothes, to her Fighting outfit, which was her simple  
white gi, knotted with a sash at the waist. She had gotten a mild case  
of the shakes as nerves hit, but the two spent the time before her  
match talking about the strengths and weaknesses of her opponent.  
Somehow, having Ranma with her, who had gone through all of this two  
weeks ago, helped.  
  
A man popped his head into the dressing room after knocking  
politely. "Miss Tendo, your fight is next". Akane did a final few  
warm-up stretches, and looked at Ranma. Ranma looked back, face  
serious, but somehow unable to keep a smile on his face "You ready,  
Akane?". Somehow, the smile was mirrored on Akane's face as she  
replied, "Let's go, "Sensei"" the two shared a laugh at the nickname  
Akane had given Ranma as they left the room.  
  
The noise from the crowd rippled as Ranma led Akane down to  
the ring, whispering words of encouragement. For her par, Akane did  
her best to ignore the crowd and focused on the ring. she did a few  
tests of the ropes to see how much "give" they had. Her face seemed to  
be locked on to Ranma's, as if to shut out the rest of the world.  
Ranma knew she was scared. But she would do the best she could, and  
hopefully that would be good enough.  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen, our next match is a Freestyle Division  
match, and is scheduled for two five minute rounds. This is a special  
debut match. Both fighters are making their Freestyle division debut  
tonight." the ring announcer was interrupted by the crowd. Ranma had  
been told that Street Fighting was usually a distraction for the idle  
rich, but people of every way of life and stripe seemed to be here  
tonight.  
  
"Our first competitor hails from New York City, New York,  
United States of America. He had a record of 14 wins and 6 losses as a  
member of the American Kickboxing Federation. Alex RODRIGUEZ!" the  
crowd applauded mildly, not warming up to the man, but not rejecting  
him out of hand.  
  
"And his opponent hails from Nerima Japan, she fights under  
the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts discipline She is  
making her first professional fight with us tonight, Ladies and  
Gentlemen, AKANE TENDO!" The applause was a little louder for Akane,  
as the crowd tried to show their support for the local fighter.:  
  
Akane's mind was swimming as she vaguely heard the referee's  
directions, and after bowing to her opponent, retreated to her corner.  
Ranma tried to calm her down. "It's just like the drills we did Akane.  
He has reach, he has several places he can attack you. But you're  
smaller, you're a harder target to hit. Make him come to you. Don't  
let him work his style fight. Make him work yours."  
  
As the buzzer sounded, Ranma dropped down from the apron.  
"Well, I've done everything I can for her. It's up to her now, and all  
I can do is pray" he thought to himself. Then it hit him like a  
hammer. He couldn't help her now, it was up to her. Could he just  
stand there if she got hurt?  
  
As the bell sounded, Akane had taken her fear and locked it  
away, deep inside herself where she wouldn't deal with it. Rodriguez,  
expecting an easy fight, came sauntering out to the middle of the  
ring, and threw a couple snap kicks at Akane as if he expected "the  
little girl' to fold up and run.  
  
Akane had dealt with that attitude before, and knew that she  
would have to deal with it, to gain his respect. To make him wary of  
her. so the next time Rodriguez threw that forward kick, she spun  
under it and caught her opponent in the back of the shin with her  
foot, sending the kickboxer down.  
  
"YEAH! All right Akane! keep it up!" Ranma cheered from the  
outside. She had conquered her fear in the ring, Akane smiled to  
herself. "Not bad for a Macho Chick, eh Ranma" she thought to herself,  
with a mental smile, as Rodriguez scrambled back to his feet. He had  
learned his lesson. This wouldn't be an easy match for him.  
  
Over the next four minutes, each attack that Rodriguez made  
would be countered by Akane. Rodriguez would try to hit Akane with a  
left hook, Akane would grab the hand and use the kickboxer's own  
momentum against him, flipping him over her shoulder and kicking him  
in the chest before he could roll away. Rodriguez, getting frustrated,  
tried another snap kick, Akane knocked it aside with a sweep block  
with her left hand, and her right hand flashed out, catching Rodriguez  
right in the ribs, staggering him and sending him a step or two back.  
Rodriguez went back to a traditional kickboxer attack, time and time  
again his foot came in, looking to connect, probing her defenses.  
Akane used the same blocks and maneuvers that worked against the pole  
to great measure.  
  
With thirty seconds left in the round, however, a sweeping  
round kick caught Akane squarely in the side, knocking the air out of  
her, and she involuntarily let her guard down. That's all the  
experienced Rodriguez needed, like a flash, he was hammering her with  
blow after blow, Akane managed to block or dodge some of them, but  
there was just too many punches and kicks connecting! Ranma stood  
rooted to the spot, mind racing, asking himself, "Should I throw in  
the towel? Would she forgive me if I did?" he had just about decided  
that it would be worth her anger just to make sure she wasn't hurt and  
was about to throw in the towel when the decision was made for him and  
the bell sounded.  
  
Rodriguez, now seemingly back in complete control of the  
match, walked back to his corner, while Akane staggered back to her  
corner. Ranma quickly guided her over to the stool, and toweled the  
sweat off quickly, trying to think of what to tell her, then decided  
quickly. "Ok Akane, you made it through that. you did great for four  
and a half minutes, but you have to fight a full round. He won't let  
you escape if he gets you hurt again. You have to watch your defense!"  
  
Akane groaned slightly, then returned to full focus, shaking  
her head slightly to clear the cobwebs. She nodded slightly to tell  
Ranma she was ok. "Five more minutes, that's all you need Akane. If  
you get in trouble like that again, I'm going to throw in the towel. I  
don't want to see you get hurt anymore." Ranma tried to explain.  
  
THAT got Akane's attention, and she turned a force four glare  
onto Ranma. "Don't. If I want to quit, I'll tap out. Don't make that  
decision for me. I can beat him!" The staccato beat of her words came  
out filled with emotion. Her eyes pleaded with Ranma to let her make  
her own choice.  
  
Ranma was taken aback by her words, then nodded. "Your call  
Akane, now watch that round kick to the side!", the warning buzzer  
sounded and Akane got to her feet, a trifle too unsteadily for Ranma's  
taste. but he had made a promise.  
  
The bell for the second and final round sounded, Akane  
staggered out to the middle of the ring. Ranma was aghast. Had he  
promised Akane that he would let her go out , just to have her stagger  
out, defenseless and liable to get beat up? Her opponent could smell  
the victory and he moved in for the kill. Akane ducked under the right  
hook, and just stayed on the defensive, frustrating Rodriguez who had  
tried every move he could to finish off the weaving Akane, then he  
made a mistake. He went for that sweeping round kick, aiming for the  
spot that he hit Akane last round. Ranma closed his eyes. He didn't  
want to see this.  
  
But the stagger had been a ruse to sucker her opponent in with  
that attack. Akane had taken a step to the left, catching Rodriguez's  
leg just below the knee, trapping it in between her body and her arm.  
Shed fired a couple shots to her opponent's stomach, knocking a bit of  
the wind out of Rodriguez, then she twisted her body over, taking her  
opponent over with a leg whip, helped by her foot tripping him. Not  
letting him get up, Akane kept the legs trapped, putting one knee on  
each leg and fired rapid punches at the sternum of Rodriguez. He tried  
to block the punches as best he could but in this position, he  
couldn't fight effectively, and after about the twentieth punch got  
through his defenses, tapped out.  
  
The referee quickly called for Akane to get off of Rodriguez,  
and called for the bell. Akane raised her hands over her head, and was  
quickly engulfed in a bear hug by Ranma, who just as suddenly put her  
back down when he realized what he was doing. But Akane didn't mind.  
She had survived. Better then that, she had won. The rest could take  
care of itself. She turned to shake her opponent's hand, and to hear  
the announcer. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of the bout, at 1  
minute and 47 seconds of the second round, AKANE TENDO!"  
  
Back in the small dressing room the promoters had given Akane,  
she sat in the one chair in the room, tired, with a bruise on her  
right side, and a split lip, but she said to Ranma. "I did it, didn't  
I?" As if she still couldn't believe that she had won her debut in the  
Street Fighting matches.  
  
Just then, Mr. Tendo and Genma came in, thinking that Akane  
was about to fight. Due to Nabiki's giving them the false time (also  
they were a bit late due to Mr. Tendo having to pray at the family  
shrine and having Nervous Breakdown #36 (My daughter is going to get  
hurt badly)) and froze, taking in the scene. Mr. Tendo immediately  
rushed to Akane's side. "Wh-What happened Akane?'  
  
Akane just grinned, "I fought. Not only that, I won." Soun  
Tendo chose that moment to have his eyes roll up into his head and  
fall to the ground.  
  
Genma grinned, "I knew you could do it! The two of you will  
make a great Street Fighter team." Akane raised her head again.  
  
"Not yet, if anything, tonight's fight proved that I still  
have a way to go. I'm not going to enter another fight until I train a  
LOT more and get better. But with Ranma and I training, hopefully that  
won't take too long." Akane replied, head tilted at an angle, a  
commanding tone in her voice that brooked no arguments.  
  
Genma turned to Ranma "Mr. Nakajima asked me to tell you that  
if you wish to join his stable, he's willing to let you join as a  
provisional member, as well as Akane when she decides that she's  
ready. The contract is for one year, the amount of time we agreed  
you'd spend street-fighting." Ranma grinned, looking at Akane, who  
smiled back.  
  
"That should be just enough time for the team of Saotome and  
Tendo to set the street fighter world on it's ear Pop" Ranma said,  
matching Akane's grin. "After all, we're both undefeated so far." 


	3. Out Of Nerima, and On The Road

Ranma 1/2, its characters are a creation of Rumiko Takahashi,  
and if I didn't give her proper praise (not that I wouldn't anyway), I  
would be fed to a pack of wolverines, so thank you. Street Fighter and  
its characters or storyline is copyright Capcom, and no offense is  
intended.  
  
Hey everybody, it's time to do it again! Chapter three time! All  
C&C, MSTings, and Chinese fortune cookies are welcome at  
yellope@norfolk-county.com. I try to write back everybody who writes  
me, because without you, I'd have no audience. I might soon be posting  
a couple of fics from a friend of mine shortly, but otherwise, this is  
my sole intent right now. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------  
Ranma 1/2-Street Fighter Cross over "Iron Fist, Iron Warrior"  
  
Chapter Three "Out Of Nerima and On the Road"  
------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The last twenty-four hours had been frantic to say the least.  
While Ranma was used to life on the road, having traveled the globe  
with his father, this was going to be a new and different experience  
for Akane, who had never been away from home for more then two or  
three weeks. Ranma usually had nearly all his stuff packed and ready  
to go on a moment's notice anyway, but Akane had to pack and get ready  
to leave, so Ranma decided to say goodbye to a friend first.  
  
Ukyou was nearly out of her mind, as she cooked up an  
okonomiyaki to try to distract herself, and to keep herself from  
crying. How DARE Ran-chan leave for a whole year, especially after she  
had just found him again after so long! So absorbed was she in her  
cooking and her thoughts, that she didn't hear the bell that usually  
announced visitors to her shop. Nor did she hear the person sit down.  
It took the person clearing his throat to get Ukyou's attention.  
  
Without looking up, she said "I'm sorry, the sign on the door  
says we're closed right now" Once again, the tears threatened to  
overwhelm her, and she bowed her head down to her cooking. Then to her  
shock, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the stranger actually get  
up, and move around behind the counter. Immediately all the sniffles  
and the tears stopped. Was this stranger going to rob her? Or, (and  
her heart turned to ice) something worse?  
  
Her muscles tensed, as she thought to herself, ok, let's see  
how well you do with a hot okonomiyaki in your face pal! She waited  
until the stranger was a couple of steps away, then turned and flung  
the okonomiyaki at the person, yelling. As the flying food left her  
spatula, she recognized her "stranger" and noted with horror what she  
was doing.  
  
Fortunately for both their sakes, Ranma had seen a hint of  
the movement before it happened and managed to duck under the flying  
food, letting it *splat* against the wall harmlessly. Ranma looked at  
Ukyou, who had dropped her spatula in shock.  
  
Ukyou recovered slowly. "Ran-chan!! Sorry about that. Did I  
get any on you?" she asked, mind still somewhat frozen from the shock  
Ranma had given her.  
  
"Nah, I saw it coming." Ranma said, picking himself off the  
ground. He grimaced inwardly. He knew Uc-chan was taking this pretty  
hard, but he shouldn't have surprised her like that. "You okay,  
Uc-chan?"  
  
Ukyou had pretty much recovered at this point, but all the  
arguments, the pleas that she had thought up mentally left her mind.  
All that came to mind was "Do you REALLY have to go for a full year  
Ran-Chan?"  
  
Ranma sighed, saying goodbye to Ukyou was not one of the  
things he was looking forward to. Some of the other things could be  
put aside. For example, saying goodbye to Shampoo or Kodachi. He was  
quite sure they had probably concocted a couple mad schemes to get him  
to stay and were just waiting for him to show up. He tried to put on a  
smiling face.  
  
"It just was going to be that this was something I had to do,  
cause Pop said so. But I've learned a lot lately, and this is  
something I want to do. The fact I'll miss you hurts a lot though."  
  
Ukyou nodded, still somewhat confused by all of this. Ranma  
continued, voice a little weak. "You know that you're my best friend  
in all the world Ukyou. I promise I'll write every week or so. I wish  
you could come with me and Akane, but I know you have your roots here  
with the restaurant."  
  
Ukyou closed her eyes. For a while, she had considered selling  
the restaurant, and joining Ranma and Akane on their trip. But in the  
end, she knew that she couldn't leave. It was a whole another world  
from the one she was used to. She wouldn't feel comfortable. Also,  
there was the growing friendship between Ranma and Akane.  
  
Ukyou started crying softly. "Ran-chan, do you care for  
Akane?" She needed to know. She needed to know if she had a chance, or  
if her and Ranma would just be "special friends". Either way, she'd  
still care for Ranma, but she wouldn't allow herself to love someone  
whose heart was already claimed by someone else.  
  
The question, coming out of nowhere as it did, floored Ranma.  
If it was from anyone else, Ranma would have tried to "macho" it out.  
But with Ukyou, one of his dearest friends, he felt like he would have  
to tell the truth. Now if he only knew what the truth was. "Ukyou,  
things have changed a lot over the last three weeks. I truly don't  
know how I feel about Akane. She's a good student, and when she went  
through some rough times over the last couple weeks, she came through  
with flying colors. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't want to see  
her hurt. If that means I care for her, I guess I do."  
  
Ukyou sighed. It wasn't a full-fledged answer by any means,  
but she guessed it would do. Maybe Ran-chan would know better when he  
got home. The tears continued, and Ranma just brought her close,  
holding her in a hug, letting the tears fall from both their cheeks,  
as Ukyou silently cursed the spirits that had made her fall in love  
with a martial artist.  
  
Meanwhile, at the Tendo dojo, another sort of tearful goodbye  
was being said. Akane was packing several bags with clothing and  
mementos of home. Nabiki and Kasumi were helping her get everything  
together. Akane felt somewhat weird, it was an odd mixture of  
excitement and worry about the journey she was about to go on.  
  
Nabiki tried to keep Akane's spirits up. "Hey it's not like  
it's forever sis." Akane nodded, slightly, packing a second gi into a  
bag. Nabiki continued, "At least you won't have to deal with Tatewaki  
proclaiming his love for you every other minute. Plus, many girls  
would love to spend a year with their fiancee visiting exotic cities."  
  
Kasumi and Nabiki shared a giggle over Akane's protest that he  
was a pervert. Nabiki noted that the protests had almost seemed  
half-hearted. "She's finally falling for him, it sure took her long  
enough" she mused to herself. Nabiki wondered what the changes a year  
away from fiancees, curses, bad poetry (from Kuno-baby) and constant  
interference from their well-meaning fathers would do for the  
relationship between Akane and Ranma.  
  
"It won't be that bad" Kasumi said. "After all, Mister  
Nakajima gave us a list of some of the places you would be, so we'll  
be sending notes and little things to keep your spirits up."  
  
Kasumi had approved of this trip. Sometimes she wanted to try  
to fix everything, to tell her dad and Mr. Saotome to stop meddling in  
their kids affairs. And sometimes Akane and Ranma needed a reminder  
that they cared for each other. But she had a feeling that they  
wouldn't listen to her, so she had decided to work a little more  
quietly.  
  
She was the one, who when she had found out about some of  
Genma's fights in the past, had asked about some of the stories. This  
had led to the two fathers talking about the Street Fighter circuit,  
and when Genma started thinking about going on a trip with Ranma to  
show him the circuit, had suggested that Akane join in. After all,  
this would be a great way for the Saotome and Tendo schools of  
Anything Goes Martial Arts to get some publicity, and since the two  
were engaged, after all... Then she sat back and let nature take it's  
course.  
  
Akane shared a special smile with the two closest people in  
her life, her wonderful sisters, then finished packing. "All done" she  
chirped, and sat back. The immensity of what she was about to embark  
on hit her, and she started shaking slightly. The three sisters then  
shared a big hug. They had been there for each other so long, now for  
a year, one of them would be separated from the other two.  
  
Later that day, Akane and Ranma stood at the boarding gate for  
their flight to Italy. The entire Tendo family and Genma and Ukyou had  
turned up to see them off. Ukyou had given Ranma one of her small  
spatulas to keep as something to remember while he was away. Just as  
the attendants announced that Flight 402 from Tokyo to Rome is now  
boarding, Nabiki came up to Akane. "Kasumi and I pooled our funds, and  
we decided to get this for you." She handed over a light golden  
necklace. But it was the heart shaped locket that drew Akane's  
attention. She opened it with shaking hands. Inside was a picture of  
the three sisters, Kasumi on the left, Nabiki on the right, flashing a  
victory sign. In the middle was Akane, brandishing an impudent grin  
for the camera.  
  
Akane was overwhelmed, she started crying again, and hugged  
each of her sisters. "It's beautiful. I'm gonna wear it all the time."  
she declared, slipping the necklace over her head, letting the locket  
lie against the bottom of her neck. Ranma watched, a small strange  
smile on his face. Ukyou noticed, and inwardly cried. She knew where  
his heart would be eventually. But still she gave Ranma a hug,  
clasping him to her. As she broke the hug, she said "Don't you get  
hurt on me Ran-Chan. If you get yourself killed in some exotic port  
I'll never forgive you." Ranma grinned.  
  
"Well, we ought to be boarding", Akane said with a tight smile  
on her face. After a last round of hugs, Akane and Ranma walked down  
the boarding ramp to the plane that would take them far away from the  
life they had known.  
  
As the two sat in their seats, Akane turned to Ranma. "It's  
only been a couple of minutes, yet I miss them already." Ranma knew  
exactly what she was talking about. He looked inwardly, found that  
familiar hurt inside, and winced as it was opened anew.  
  
"I understand, Akane. I feel the same way about my mom. I went  
away for years at a time because Pop wanted to train me as a martial  
artist, then when I got cursed, I couldn't meet my mom as myself, due  
to the fact she might be unhappy about my pop not making a "real man"  
out of me. I've often wondered if I should just tell my mom the truth  
next time I see her, just because even if she follows through on her  
threat to make us commit seppuku, just so I can talk to her as myself  
again. The only way I've been able to deal with it is to cry when I'm  
alone, cause I don't think anyone would understand, and then lock away  
the pain when I'm done." Ranma said, eyes downcast.  
  
Akane took Ranma's hand in hers. "Thank you Ranma." she said,  
smiling softly. Ranma looked up, and she could see a couple of tears  
glimmering in his eyes, tears she knew he didn't want to shed. "Maybe  
after a year on the tour, we can talk to your mom and explain  
everything. After all, we're a team right?". She still remembered  
Ranma's comment when he had told Genma that "the team of Tendo and  
Saotome would set the Street Fighter world on it's ear."  
  
Akane's words seemed to knock Ranma out of his funk, and he  
looked up. "Right" But still, he sat back in his seat, and putting his  
head back, closing his eyes, he started thinking about things.  
  
The plane ride was quiet, Akane had fallen asleep in her seat.  
For some reason, Ranma could never sleep on planes, so he spent his  
time watching the in-flight movie and tried to relax. From time to  
time, he snuck looks at Akane, who was sleeping peacefully, airplane  
blanket covering her body. She understood what he went through, and  
she had helped him.  
  
He tried to run through his feelings in his head, and just  
like when he was talking to Ukyou earlier, it was all one big confused  
jumble of emotions. She was cute when she was happy, and she put up  
with his ego, well at least usually (rubbing a spot on his head that  
she usually smacked with that mallet of hers when he said something  
particularly bad).  
  
As he settled back into thinking, he thought that maybe if his  
pop and Mr. Tendo hadn't spent all their time planning the engagement,  
and forcing the two of them together, perhaps maybe they wouldn't have  
gotten off on the wrong foot. He tried to think of how it could have  
been. To his surprise, he found himself smiling as he dropped off for  
a quick nap.  
  
As he groggily tried to wake up.. he felt Akane lightly  
shaking him. "Wha- wh- huh?" was all he could stutter out, as he  
finally came fully to his senses. He had been having a dream, about  
Akane, but the details fled his waking mind like the last shadow  
fleeing the morning sun.  
  
"We're coming into Roma airport. Mr. Nakajima's supposed to  
meet us after we clear customs." Akane handed him a thermos with  
coffee in it. Ranma took a cautious sip of it. Ok, it wasn't from  
Akane, he thought to himself. If it was, it'd probably knock him right  
back out.  
  
As the two finally cleared customs, they spotted a limo driver  
holding dual signs up, one said "Saotome", the other said "Tendo", As  
the two came up to him, he grabbed their bags. "Mr. Nakajima's  
apologies sir and madam, there's been a slight change of plan. Our  
original site for our fight, was unfortunately raided by the Italian  
police last night. Our fight has been merged with a tournament that  
was being held today." The person hastily explained, in somewhat  
passable Japanese  
  
Ranma had been told that while popular, Street Fighter matches  
were illegal in many countries, so this came as no surprise. He handed  
his bags over and spoke for the two of them. "Let's go."  
  
The two were quickly herded into a waiting limousine, which  
immediately set off. After the long flight, Ranma and Akane wanted  
nothing more then to take a nap to adjust their internal clocks, but  
apparently, that was not to be. The driver seemed to think that  
driving in Rome traffic was a combat sport. Akane and Ranma had all  
they could do not to be thrown around the plush seats.  
  
Ranma pressed the intercom button. "Why all the speed? I mean,  
we just got here," then he had to hold on for dear life as the car  
nearly went on two wheels and the tires screeched in protest as the  
driver took a turn at 60 miles per hour. As the car settled back, he  
could see the driver press his own button.  
  
"You mean they didn't let you know before you left? It's a  
series of 5 fights, and our normal 5th fighter broke his leg two weeks  
ago. So if we need you tonight, the fight will decide who wins the  
series, and a rather large bet. So I have to get you there in time,  
just in case you're needed. Hold on, we're almost there."  
  
The limo screeched to a halt next to what looked like a  
natural set amphitheater. Rows of stone benches surrounded a wooden  
stage. On the benches, high class Italians (the men were wearing  
tuxedos, the women wore evening gowns) cheered and placed wagers on  
their favorite fighter. On the well-lit stage, two fighters were  
brawling, the larger man had several bruises on his body, while the  
smaller man seemed to have the advantage as they traded fisticuffs.  
  
The driver took in the scene, and cursed softly. "Jensen's  
fighting already? The fights must be going quickly tonight. Ranma, can  
you fight in those clothes?" Ranma looked down at his shirt and pants.  
It wasn't the level of comfort or the ease of movement he was used to,  
but yeah, he could fight, and he told the driver so.  
  
"Great. By the way, my name's Ian. Ian Thompson. Limo Driver,  
translator, Den Mother, and generally on loan from God to watch over  
these misfits, the spirits know they need the help," the driver said  
with a smile. "Hurry, we got to get down to the stage quickly". The  
three ran down the stairs of the amphitheater. When they reached the  
bottom, Ian said something to a dark, rugged Italian, who took a  
discerning look at Ranma, then nodded.  
  
The fight on stage quickened. The smaller man leaped several  
feet in the air and brought his leg down in a smashing ax kick on his  
opponent's head. The larger man stumbled forward, straight into a  
power-packed uppercut that sent him flying backwards and off the  
stage. He groaned as he hit the well packed earth, and just lay there.  
  
  
Most of the crowd groaned, apparently the smaller man had been  
the underdog in the fight, meaning a lot of bettors had lost money.  
  
The Italian Ian had spoken to got up on stage as the smaller  
fighter raised his arms in victory, and started announcing. "Sorry to  
do this to you Ranma, but you're up next. Good luck and good skill, a  
lot of money's riding on you!" Ian said, trying to project confidence  
into his manner  
  
Ranma groaned. It wasn't enough that he had just taken a multi  
hour flight westward and his body said it was mid morning even though  
it was the middle of the night here, but he shows up and two minutes  
later, he's supposed to be fighting? And money's riding on it?  
  
At Ian's nod, Ranma climbed up on stage, and stretched out his  
sore muscles as best he could. Akane turned to the suddenly nervous  
Ian and asked "How much money is being bet on Ranma?"  
  
Ian sheepishly grinned, "I didn't want to tell Ranma for fear  
of jinxing him, but approximately 217 million lira, which is about 17  
million yen, or approximately 125,000 American." Akane's mouth dropped  
open at the amount.  
  
There are times when someone has the right to borrow a phrase  
from somebody they know. This was one of them. "Oh, My." Akane said,  
wondering at the amount. Briefly, she wondered what would happen if  
Ranma lost, would their new teammates be *unhappy*?  
  
Ranma briefly tested the stage, he liked the hardness, and he  
could get good grip on it. He quickly took off his shoes, as to get a  
better grip. Then a cheer announced his opponent's arrival, so he  
looked over across the round stage.  
  
And looked Up.  
  
And Looked further Up.  
  
And even Further up.  
  
His opponent wasn't big. He wasn't even huge.  
  
He was GIGANTIC. He looked like some bizarre cross of an  
Ironwood tree and a human being. And he was almost as thick as he was  
tall. If he had gone to an American high school, he probably would  
have been voted, "Most Likely to be mistaken for a brick wall".  
  
  
Ranma panicked for a second. With all that he had gone through  
today, they wanted him to fight THIS MONSTER? Then he calmed himself.  
After all, he told himself that he would just to have to avoid getting  
hit. The guy had to be slow.  
  
The Italian started announcing, there was some polite  
applause, but the whole crowd seemed to roar when his opponent was  
announced. Apparently, he was known as "Force".  
  
Immediately people started placing bets, and it was apparent,  
at least to Ranma, that the crowd considered him a heavy underdog.  
  
The Italian looked at both fighters, nodded, and jumped down  
from the stage. Apparently that was the signal to start. Force  
immediately started moving forward, hoping to trap his opponent. Ranma  
circled to his right, looking for a spot to attack. He tried a front  
kick to his leg. It was like kicking a tree. Ranma hobbled back, leg a  
little sore, and tried a punch to the stomach. The punch had little if  
any effect on Force, who nearly decapitated Ranma with a backhand  
swing, Ranma just barely ducking under the blow.  
  
Then Ranma had an idea. He taunted Force, making rude hand  
gestures, playing up to the crowd, even thumbed his nose at Force.  
  
The crowd was silent for a few seconds, then the burst into  
cheers. They approved of the impertinence of the challenger, but there  
was an undercurrent of "Just wait till this punk gets his head ripped  
off"  
  
On the outside, Ian was flabbergasted. "What is he doing? He's  
going to make that guy mad enough to really hurt him badly!" Akane  
smiled. She had seen this before.  
  
"It's a Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts  
technique. Do you remember the first rule of martial arts, Ian?"  
Comprehension dawned on Ian and then he smiled, a big enough smile to  
match Akane's, "Yeah. A fighter's no good unless he controls his  
temper."  
  
Force charged as fast as he could at Ranma time and time  
again. Ranma played the matador to the bull of Force, tempting,  
teasing, goading Force into a mad charge, then at the last moment,  
skipping away. Any sense of fatigue he had, disappeared as he let  
himself go. He was on the razor's edge. One false move, one false  
step, and he was in for a lot of pain.  
  
Finally he had made his way to the edge of the theater. He then  
shouted at Force. A crude smile slowly made its way to Force's face.  
He had his opponent trapped. Soon his pain would begin. He charged at  
Ranma, 10 feet, 5 feet, Akane closed her eyes. And Ranma Leaped.  
  
Jumped straight up into the air, in a forward flip that evaded  
the outstretched arms of Force, who went hurtling off the edge and  
down the four feet to the ground. Ranma landed, took a momentary look  
behind him without turning, and then leaped in a backwards somersault,  
sticking the landing like a gymnast, both feet firmly planted in  
Force's stomach. Then to make sure the big man would not rise to  
destroy him, he found the massive trunk that served as his neck, and  
carefully smashed two fingers into the base of the neck.  
  
Akane held her breath. Would Force know what Ranma was doing?  
If so, he could break the hold in time. Force struggled weakly for a  
few seconds, then the light of comprehension dawned in his face. The  
grip was on the area that contained the carteroid artery, the major  
supplier of blood to the brain!  
  
Ranma dodged the few weak swipes that Force threw his way, and  
kept it on until the big man had stopped struggling, then left in on a  
few seconds longer to make sure the immense Force was unconscious. He  
then stood up.  
  
The crowd was silent for several seconds in awe of what they  
had seen. Then they exploded in cheers, chanting his name. Ranma's new  
teammates came out and congratulated him, lifting him up to their  
shoulders.  
  
Akane smiled. Brains over Brawn, every time.  
  
Another person in the crowd smiled, but his smile held no  
happiness, but a deep down predatory grin. This one has talent, he  
thought to himself. He is a beautiful fighter, like me. Carefully, he  
left without notice being taken of him. After all, it would not do for  
the great assassin, the Spanish Ninja known as Vega, to be caught in  
such High Society. They might wonder who he was there to kill. He  
will either have to be co-opted, or he would be destroyed, he thought  
to himself. One not working for his employer was one working against  
it. 


	4. Life on The Flashfire Circuit

Howdy folks, and folkettes! Chapter Four time coming up. As  
usual, thanks go out to Rumiko Takahashi, for creating the Ranma 1/2  
universe, Capcom for the Street Fighter Universe, and also in this  
case, White Wolf. I took the Lightning Fists from the Street Fighter:  
The Storytelling game source book "The Perfect Warrior"  
  
Comments, critiques, MSTings, and recipes for fat free  
brownies (Have to throw that in there SOMEWHERE ) can be sent to  
yelloped@attbi.com.  
  
And now, awwwwayyyyyy we go!  
  
"Life on the Flashfire Circuit"  
  
The fights had ended an hour ago, but the party seemed to be  
well under way. The guests of honor had been the victorious fighters  
of Nakajima Productions, and especially Ranma. Although they were  
tired from their long flight, Akane and Ranma decided to stay awake  
for as long as possible, to soak in the experience.  
  
Several of the guests were wealthy backers of Nakajima Productions,  
and they seemed especially interested in Ranma. After all, many  
fighters that they had seen before either didn't have the skill of  
Ranma, and they didn't seem to have the natural charisma of this  
uncertain teenager from Japan.  
  
During the night, the various fighters of Nakajima Productions  
re-introduced themselves, as Ranma tried to make sure he recognized  
everyone.  
  
First, there was the small, but fast and seemingly always in  
motion Lei Chong Ling, a Kung Fu champion before he turned to the  
Street Fighter circuit to learn more about varying martial arts. He  
was seemingly very up front with everyone. He had told Ranma that he  
had seen the tape of Ranma's first fight, and wondered why Mister  
Nakajima had signed a veritable rookie, but after seeing Ranma's fight  
against Force, understood and thought he'd be an asset to the team.  
Ranma agreed, the two fought somewhat similar styles, they spent a  
good couple of minutes talking about the various moves and maneuvers.  
  
Then there was Todd Vanderstreet, who was trying to step away  
from his family name, and make his own way as a fighter using a Karate  
variant. He seemed a natural charmer. When introduced to Akane, he had  
kissed her hand. That immediately set Ranma on edge, but he didn't say  
anything. After all, you don't make a good impression by decking your  
teammate the first day you know him.  
  
The third fighter was introduced has Venton McCracken, an  
American boxer, whose rough looks seemed out of place in such high  
society, but Ranma liked the guy. His first question upon meeting  
Ranma was, "So, how badly were you scared when you saw that wall you  
were facing?", although the smile on his face and the handshake let  
Ranma know he was joking. Ranma laughed, and replied, "I think it was  
better I didn't know who I was facing. If I had known before hand, I  
think I would have run halfway across the ocean by now." The two  
laughed.  
  
The fourth fighter, who was still somewhat groggy after his  
match his match earlier in the evening. was introduced as Igor Jensen.  
The huge Sanbo fighter seemed somewhat relieved that Ranma had pulled  
it out for his team. However, when the two shook hands, Igor's hand  
ENGULFED Ranma's. It was all Ranma could do to keep from screaming as  
Igor shook his hand. Ranma could tell that this was literally a guy  
who didn't know his own strength.  
  
Ranma then shook hands with the final fighter, a Wu Shu expert  
named Hector Garganza. He winced sympathetically at how slow Hector  
moved around in his crutches, Ranma guessed it was his injury that  
opened up a spot on the five-man roster.  
  
As the party continued, Mister Nakajima climbed up on top of  
the table. He spoke in English, which seemed to be the standard  
language of the group. Ranma and Akane had taken some English lessons,  
so could follow the gist of it.  
  
"Honored Guests, Thank you for showing up at my party. I have  
two special announcements to make. First of all, one of the people in  
the crowd was a promoter for a tournament in Brussels. Ladies and  
Gentlemen, on the undercard of the World Warrior battle between Fei  
Long and Balrog, the team of Nakajma Productions has been offered a  
team battle match, against the fighters known as the Lightning Fists!"  
  
The entire crowd went nuts at this, as a fight like this would  
mean a lot of recognition, and a lot of money for the team if they  
won! Ranma smiled at Akane, who was grinning too. Seems like they had  
hit the big time already!  
  
Mr. Nakajima waited until the hubbub had died down from the  
last announcement. "Also, we have made a major decision. We have  
decided to expand the stable to a 7-fighter team. That way, we get to  
keep Hector when he recovers, and when our other new fighter from  
Japan, Miss Akane Tendo, is ready, We'll be stronger then ever!"  
  
The crowd applauded, but it was the fighters who seemed the  
happiest. Ranma guessed that they had formed tight bonds, and he would  
have pushed somebody out when Hector recovered, which wouldn't have  
been too good.  
  
The party continued on into the night. Ranma and Akane managed  
to avoid the offers of wine, preferring to sip on glasses of spring  
water (Ranma tested his to be sure it wouldn't trigger his curse).  
However, they had sipped enough wine, to be polite, that they felt a  
little giddy. The wine had acted quickly on the both of them. And to  
their surprise, they found a supply of energy to keep them going long  
after they thought they'd be asleep in their beds.  
  
Finally, as the party tuned down, and it just was Mr.  
Nakajima, the various Street Fighters, and Ranma and Akane left, they  
all were telling stories of life on the road. Ranma and Akane were  
laughing at the stories.   
  
Hector finished up a story of a fight on top of a building  
that was being built, and then looked at Ranma and Akane. "You know,  
fellow fighters, we have not initiated our new battle hermano  
(brother) into our team!" This seemed to be a planned thing for they  
immediately grabbed Ranma, who was halfheartedly trying to break free,  
and started carrying him.  
  
Ranma was a little nervous, but he relaxed. What could happen,  
anyway. Then he freaked out as he saw where they were carrying him.  
"OH no!" he cried trying to wiggle his way free, but his new teammates  
had too good a grip on him. "Not the pooooooooooooool" As his  
teammates threw him through the air, he only had time to think, "I  
hope the water isn't cold," before...  
  
S-P-L-A-S-H!  
  
Then silence.  
  
Then the sound of six jaws dropping at once, as well as Akane  
covering her eyes.  
  
Ranma-chan climbed out of the pool, shivering somewhat. She  
sighed. She knew this would come out eventually, but this wasn't the  
best time for everyone to find out. "I guess there's one story I have  
to tell. But first.. can we PLEASE get some hot water?"  
  
Back inside, Ranma gratefully accepted the cup of hot water  
and poured it over his head. Back to his normal self, he sighed again.  
"Ok. you guys probably think this is pretty weird. It all started..."  
and he went on to explain the whole story of training at Jusenkyo, and  
the cursed spring that he fell into.  
  
Todd was the first one to react after the story. "If anyone  
tried to tell me that was true, I'd think they were ingesting  
something that gave them hallucinogenic fits. But I saw it with my own  
two eyes."   
  
A thoughtful Nakajima said "Is there a cure for the cursed  
spring?" Ranma shook his head. He had spent most of his time since  
being cursed, looking for the cure.  
  
"My Pop and I have spent a lot of time looking for a cure. It  
can be rather, well, inconvenient" Ranma finished, then yawned. The  
Fighters immediately started apologizing, noting they had a long  
flight, and Ranma and Akane took their leave.  
  
In their way out, Ian handed Ranma a room key. "You two are in  
Room 501. We're going to leave for Brussels on Saturday. So spend the  
next few days relaxing, sightseeing, and getting ready. The Lightning  
Fists are GOOD."  
  
It wasn't until the two had gotten into the elevator and had  
pressed the button for the fifth floor that Akane realized. "We're  
sharing a room?" She winced inwardly.  
  
Ranma shook his head wearily. "We forgot to tell Ian that the  
engagement thing was by our folks, and that we would want separate  
rooms. And right now, all I want is twelve hours of sleep." The two  
were in for a rude shock.  
  
There was only one bed. Big enough for two, comfortably, but  
there still remained just one bed.  
  
Ranma looked at Akane. "Ok, who gets the floor, and who gets  
the bed." Akane considered the options, looked around the small room,  
looked at the bed, looked at Ranma, and tossed her bag to the ground.   
  
Akane then made a decision she probably would never had made if she  
had been fully awake and alert. "Ranma, we both need the rest. Lets  
share it."  
  
Ranma face-faulted. "Are, are you serious, Akane?" Inwardly he  
vowed that if he found out that his Pop and Mr. Tendo had set this up,  
he was going to hurt them. Thoroughly. Slowly.  
  
Akane sat on the bed. smoothing over the dress she was wearing  
over her knees. "Ranma, we've been through a lot. I trusted you when  
our parents pushed us into the Street Fighter circuit, and you needed  
to train me. You trusted me when I fought, that I knew was tough for  
you. We trust each other. Besides, I know nothing will happen, you  
don't care for a "sexless tomboy" anyway."  
  
For once, Akane winced, as it was HER turn to make a  
thoughtless comment. But it's true, she thought to herself. And any  
chance he might have to care for her she destroyed with her reaction.  
The small portion of her mind that was still functioning normally was  
outraged at her careless admission. What do you care for how he feels  
about you? He's a pervert, a hentai! Akane mentally silenced that  
voice, then looked up. Ranma was SMILING??? How dare he? He'd better  
have a good reason for that, or he'd get smashed with Mallet-Sama so  
fast...  
  
Ranma was almost as giddy as Akane at this point. Maybe even  
worse, he thought to himself. Not only had he flown for many hours,  
but he survived a crazy driver, fought someone who looked more like a  
wall then anything, and then had a long night. And once again, he  
spoke without thinking.  
  
"I thought that was MY line, Akane." he said, a goofy smile  
on his face. "And for me, not caring for a sexless tomboy," he  
continued, taking her hand in his and raising it to his hand in a  
courtly fashion, much as Todd Vanderstreet had earlier, "You couldn't  
be any further from the truth. But right now, I think we both need a  
good sleep. We'll talk about it more in the morning."  
  
Ranma turned off the light.. and climbed underneath the  
covers, and turned his head so he couldn't see anything but the wall,  
as not to embarrass Akane. Plus he had been called a peeping tom  
enough, and rather not make that particular charge true. His last  
coherent thought was "If Kuno wanted to kill me earlier, he'd want to  
kill me twice as badly for sleeping in the same bed as Akane."  
  
Akane blushed, but quickly prepared herself for bed, and  
climbed in , and got into the other half of the bed. She listened to  
Ranma's breath even out as he slipped into a deep sleep. "Good night,  
Ranma-kun" she said, even knowing that he was asleep, and quickly  
slipped into a much needed sleep herself.  
  
Ranma was the first to wake, as the sun had sent it's beam  
right across his face. He slowly came to consciousness, and shifted  
slightly. That's when he realized he wasn't alone in bed. He turned to  
see Akane sleeping peacefully on the other part of the bed.  
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, she's gonna kill me", Ranma thought, panicking  
to himself. Only sheer terror closing his throat kept him from  
screaming in panic.   
  
Ranma quietly slid out of the bed, praying that Akane would  
not wake. Thankfully, while she twitched a couple of times, he was  
able to get out of bed safely. Wondering what the heck had happened  
last night, Ranma climbed into the shower. Halfway through, his memory  
started coming back.  
  
"Ok, I told everybody about my curse, then Ian give me and  
Akane the key to our room, and then," Ranma winced, as the last part  
of the conversation came back. He hoped that Akane didn't remember the  
night. Even though she had suggested it, she'd find a way to make it  
his fault. When she had herself convinced that it was his fault, out  
would come the Mallet of Doom, and Ranma would be sent into low earth  
orbit. And this time, he wouldn't know how to get back.  
  
Quickly thinking to himself, he decided that unless Akane  
brought it up, he wouldn't say anything. And the strange thing was,  
now that he thought about it, he did care about Akane a lot, but she  
probably would laugh if they were both sober, and he tried to tell her  
that he really cared about her. Not that he wanted to marry her, or  
anything, he assured himself, but she was nice to be around. (well,  
most of the time). Too bad there was no chance he could tell her that,  
without ruining it.   
  
Akane woke up, and she turned over slightly, and saw the place  
where Ranma had been sleeping. The events of the past night came back  
to her, and her first reaction was to start thinking of how loudly to  
yell at Ranma, and how hard to smash him. But then she fully realized  
what happened, and she blushed and let go of her anger.   
  
"He probably won't ever say it while we're both sober, but at  
least I know he cares about me." Akane then sighed. Even drunk, she  
hadn't told him how much she cared for him as well. But then, knowing  
Ranma, he'd just shrug it off. But she did care for him. He had been  
getting better with remarks, and his training really did help. Too bad  
there was no chance she could tell him that, without ruining it.  
  
The two pretended as if the previous night didn't exist. Ranma  
grabbed Ian, and explained their plight, and Ian promised to see if he  
could get them separate rooms. Later that day, Ranma and Akane went  
sightseeing, taking in the sights of Rome, acting like a couple of  
teenagers (which they happened to be). They shared laughs and smiles,  
Akane had brought her camera with her, and the two took about half a  
roll of shots of the various sights. The two seemed to dodge around  
any discussion of the previous night.  
  
Ian was true to his word, getting Ranma a separate room, and  
after a fine Italian dinner, even Ranma was full by the time the team  
had finished the heap of pasta that they were served. Soon, they went  
to their separate rooms and separate beds. And although they would  
never admit to it, They dreamt of each other.  
  
The next few days passed by quickly. Ranma and Akane visited  
all the usual tourist spots that Rome had to offer. But after two  
days, Ranma was restless, and so was Akane. Ranma asked Ian if there  
was a grassy field somewhere that Ranma and Akane could spar and  
practice on. Ian consulted his ever-present black book, and drove the  
two to a suburb of Rome, about an hour and a half away. "I'll be back  
in two hours, have a good practice!"  
  
Ranma led Akane through the basics again. It had been several  
days since Akane had last practiced, and in that time, she had  
backslid slightly. But soon enough, Akane was firing off her kata  
smoothly, and the two ran through some of the more advanced drills  
Ranma had devised. Once Akane had that down, Ranma decided to run a  
new exercise.  
  
"Ok, Akane, I saw a move early in my Nerima fight that I think  
you could do. It'd be a great move. No matter how many times you hit a  
wrestler, such as our teammate Igor, or that guy Force I fought, the  
fact remains, that if they catch you, they are going to seriously hurt  
you. But this guy did a backflip, and during the backflip, he  
connected with both feet underneath his opponent's chin. By the time  
the big guy could regain his senses, the other guy was far enough away  
that he would have to track him down all over again. I don't expect  
you to pull that off right away, but lets see if we can get you to do  
the backflip first." Ranma explained. He hoped this worked, Akane was  
a good close in fighter, but if she had closed in against Force, she  
would have been smashed. This way she could get herself out of  
trouble.  
  
Akane nodded, assumed her guard stance, and leaped backwards.  
She had to put her hands down, and even that didn't help, she lost her  
balance, and flopped flat on her face. She grimaced, got back to her  
feet, and tried again. This time, she didn't even have a chance to put  
her hands down, falling nearly flat on her face.  
  
The next forty minutes were sheer torture. Time and time  
again, she threw herself backwards, and not a single time was she able  
to land the move successfully. Either she would over-rotate and land  
flat on her back, or nearly piledrive herself if she couldn't make the  
full backflip. Ranma considered ditching the idea, to let her get  
acquainted with a few more moves, before trying the backflip kick  
again. Finally he said, "Ok Akane, I just want you to hit one. Then  
we'll spar for a while, before Ian shows up."  
  
Akane nodded, making a few minor adjustments to her stance,  
bending her knees a little deeper, then sprang, and landed the  
backflip correctly. Still intent, she leaped twice more, correctly  
landing the move each time. She was about to attempt it again when  
Ranma put a hand on her shoulder. She started slightly, then grinned  
at Ranma. "How was that, "Sensei""? She asked.  
  
Ranma grinned. "Real good. REAL good. Ready to spar?" He had  
been surprised before, but her perseverance made him proud. Ranma knew  
many martial artists who would be convinced that if they couldn't do a  
move the third time they tried it, they'd be convinced that they would  
never be able to do it. The two quickly assumed their guard stance,  
and started a light sparring session.  
  
As they got more comfortable with each other's defenses, the  
sparring sped up. Ranma wasn't giving one hundred percent, but he was  
having to work several times harder then he had used to keep up with  
Akane. Akane seemed to have a natural knowledge of how to handle  
Ranma's kicks and punches, and what moves he'd use in combination with  
each other, so she shifted from one block to another without a pause.  
  
Near the end of the session, Ranma decided to surprise Akane.  
He faked a front kick, planted his front foot and pushed off, leaping  
into the air, corkscrewing his body with a jumping sweep roundhouse  
kick. He momentarily felt bad, she hadn't seen this before, but he  
wanted to see if she could adjust to new maneuvers. he swept his foot  
around, and tried to slow it down, so he wouldn't hit her to hard.  
  
Ranma realized in surprise that not only did he NOT hit Akane  
hard, she had ducked underneath him and rolled underneath. Completing  
the roll, she popped up to her guard stance, as Ranma whirled around  
to prevent Akane from getting a free shot in at his back. As he  
turned, she set herself, and leapt.  
  
Akane's feet connected solidly right under Ranma's chin and  
sent him flying backwards, eyes wide in surprise. Akane finished the  
back flip, and landed neatly on her feet. Ranma lay where he had  
fallen, not from pain, from surprise. He had just shown her that basic  
move earlier, and she pulled it out of nowhere to surprise him??? As  
he levered himself on one elbow, the look on Akane's face was stunned  
shock herself. Akane had been as surprised as anybody, but it almost  
seemed automatic to throw herself under the kick from Ranma, then the  
perfect setup to do the backflip kick. She looked at Ranma. Then  
smiled.   
  
"I guess the student takes a point from the teacher, eh  
"Sensei"?" Akane asked, trying to avoid grinning like a fool. She had  
finally scored a point off of Ranma in a sparring session! Ranma  
picked himself up off of the ground, made sure his jaw was still in  
place, half from the force of the blow, half from the surprise.  
  
"Yeah, but what's that, 500 for me and one for you? Gonna have  
to do that a lot to catch up, there Akane!" Ranma fired back, "And  
this time you won't catch me off guard. Using a move I just taught  
you. Hmph"  
  
A lot of laughter was heard in the last twenty minutes of the  
sparring session.  
  
The next two days passed by in a blur for Ranma and Akane.  
Both days they spent sparring, joined by Lei Chong Ling, who wanted to  
see the Anything Goes Martial Arts style and some of the moves it  
used.  
  
Finally, on Friday, the team took a chartered plane first  
class from Rome to Brussels, Belgium, where there next fight was to  
take place.  
  
Once the team arrived, their demeanor took a change. Before,  
they were somewhat happy go lucky, and pleasant. Now they were edgy.  
They had a week to prepare themselves for what could be the biggest  
fight of their lives, and they had never fought together as a unit.   
  
Todd and Ranma seemed to be always on edge when it came to one  
another. Both Todd and Ranma liked to bounce from place to place,  
trying to catch their opponents off guard and get a free strike.  
However, when you only had five fighters, you could only have one  
person bouncing around like that, it put too much of a burden on your  
teammates to have to try to fend off a team of five when you only had  
three shouldering the brunt of the attacks.  
  
It didn't help that Todd was still acting like a courtly  
suitor to Akane every chance he got. Honestly, Ranma thought to  
himself, this guy's as bad as Kuno. Fortunately for both Todd's health  
and for Ranma's blood pressure, Akane seemed to take it in stride.  
  
Finally, Ranma shrugged mentally, and decided to change his  
style, for the good of the team. The team seemed to click after that.  
In a practice fight against several local martial artists, the team  
took very little time in dispatching their opponents.  
  
The day before the tournament, the two teams met by the arena  
they would be using for the fight. Thanks to a hefty bribe, the  
stadium was "closed for repairs, and upkeep" for a week, so the Street  
Fighters could use it without fear of being raided.  
  
This was Ranma's first opportunity to size up his opponents,  
He had ample time, as the promoters played up the conflicts in this  
team fight.  
  
Ranma had heard rumours that the leader of the Lightning  
Fists, Bonnie Brown, who was not so affectionately known as "Backhand  
Bonnie" to the Street Fighting public. She supposedly had run the New  
York City streets when she was growing up, and looking at her in  
person, Ranma had trouble disagreeing with them. When he had asked  
Hector about Brown, he replied, "That Chica is 8 feet worth of bitch  
packed into a 5 foot 6 frame."  
  
Standing next to her, was a smiling dark skinned man. His  
bushy black beard jutting out, he seemed well at ease with the area.  
Ranma took a second look, however, beneath that friendly exterior  
located a cold heart that not even magma could warm, when he thought  
nobody was looking, the look on Mustafa's face could only be called  
patronizing. Ranma reminded himself that this Thai Kickboxer would be  
one to watch.  
  
Santo Hidetoshi stood next to his teammates, a tailored  
business suit covering his immense bulk. The sumo wrestler seemed  
somewhat friendly towards his opponent. This was a person who he  
wouldn't mind having on his side, Ranma thought to himself. Now only  
if he had a better choice of teammates.  
  
Hercules Harrison stood off to one side, not saying anything,  
taking the scene in with black orbs that seemed dull and defeated.  
Ranma had heard about him. During a professional wrestling match over  
in the USA, he had accidentally broken his opponent's neck. After he  
had served a 2-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter, the  
legendary "Rock of Gibraltar" had retired from wrestling, and  
proceeded to try to drink himself into oblivion. Only the intervention  
of the Lightning Fists kept him from succeeding.  
  
The last person seemed a bit old to be fighting, his hair and  
beard had gone completely gray, lightening almost to white. But he had  
been told that Fixer was the brains behind the team, that while Brown  
led the team, he was the heart of it. Ranma nodded to himself. Don't  
miss an opportunity to take this one out, he told himself.  
  
Finally, the promoters had stopped talking about the  
Balrog/Fei Long "Fists of Fury" match, and Bonnie Brown, sneering at  
the Nakajima Productions fighters, took the microphone.  
  
"First of all, the Lightening Fists would like to welcome the  
"esteemed" members of Nakajima Productions to Brussels." The way she  
said esteemed made it sound like something an incontinent dog leaves  
by the side of the road. "Now we'd like to tell them to go home. The  
Fists ain't lost a team fight yet, and there's no way we're gonna  
start." The sadistic grin on Brown's face seemed to add extra emphasis  
to her words.  
  
"You see, they're good, but they are going to get beat  
severely. See those two?", pointing to Lei Chong Ling and to Todd  
Vanderstreet, "I told Hercules and Santo to smash them like twigs.  
Mustafa's promised me that he's going to choke out Jensen. Fixer's got  
Venton McCracken all under control, and the kid?", while pointing to  
Ranma, "The kid's going to get his ass whooped so hard, that any  
grandkids, not that I'm gonna leave him the equipment to have  
grandkids anyway, will feel it."  
  
Ranma had had it with this, well, this BITCH's posturing.  
Detaching himself from his team, he walked toward Brown, and stood eye  
to eye with her. Ranma's eyes had a hint of fire in them, as he said  
quietly, "Want to say that again?"  
  
Brown smiled at her teammates, then quickly sunk a knee into  
Ranma's groin. As Ranma went down, writhing in pain, the rest of his  
team came in to back him up. But someone else already had that  
covered.  
  
Akane grabbed Brown by the shoulder, turned her around, and  
LEVELED her with a devastating right hand. Not content with just  
that, Akane picked up the bleeding Brown and threw her right into her  
teammates, who were charging in. As the Lightning Fists collapsed in a  
heap, security moved in and made sure the two teams couldn't get at  
each other.  
  
Brown got to her feet, and would have charged Akane, if it  
wasn't for the hordes of security separating them. "YOU BITCH! JUST  
FOR THAT I'M GONNA MAKE SURE I BREAK AT LEAST ONE BONE ON EACH MEMBER  
OF YOUR TEAM. NO ONE DECKS BONNIE BROWN AND GETS AWAY WITH IT"  
  
Akane helped a still groaning Ranma to his feet. "Just try  
it." She got out in return. The flashbulbs were popping. It wasn't  
every day that you got to see two World Warriors going at it, but an  
added bonus (at least for those in attendance) was to see a bonafide  
grudge match as well.  
  
The general feeling was, this should be interesting. 


	5. Battle: Nakajima Productions vs the Ligh...

Ohayo, everybody. Time for Chapter Five. Time for a big fight chapter!  
:)   
  
As always, Requests for Prior chapters, comments, critiques, and MSTings are all  
welcome at yelloped@attbi.com. Flames are also welcomed, (I  
feed them to my Dalek security staff, I think it gives them a fiery  
disposition )  
  
Chapter Five of "Iron Heart, Iron Warrior"  
  
"Fight To The Finish: Nakajima Productions vs. The Lightning Fists"  
  
The press conference over, Akane half helped, half-carried  
Ranma up to his room. Ranma was still in quite a bit of pain from the  
knee to the groin administered to him by the leader of the Lightning  
Fists. Ranma swore to himself quietly that should he be so lucky as to  
get his hands on one "Backhand" Bonnie Brown during the match  
tomorrow, he was going to repay the pain, IN FULL.  
  
Akane's thoughts were full of violence as well. Some were  
directed at Ranma, for putting her in this situation by letting that  
bitch get a free shot at him, and some was directed at Bonnie Brown.  
She grinned inwardly. She had wanted to lay that bitch out from the  
first time she had laid eyes on her.  
  
Akane opened the door, and dumped Ranma on the bed. She picked  
a chair for herself, and sat down. She said "Still think females can't  
fight, Ranma? Still think that Females can't hurt you? I'll bet you've  
changed your mind."   
  
Ranma croaked out, "When I see that bitch tomorrow, I am going  
to hurt her. They're going to call her "No Hands" when I'm through  
with her!" For the next few minutes, Ranma continued on his rants on  
what exactly he would do.  
  
Akane sighed, she had hoped that this wouldn't have been  
necessary. She got up and took the two strides to stand next to Ranma,  
as he looked up.  
  
She slapped his face. HARD.  
  
Ranma shot to his feet in protest, before his body reminded  
him of his injury and sank back down on the bed. Akane winced. Ranma  
needed a reminder of what he had been, and what he was going to have  
to do. "You've grown soft, Ranma Saotome. You've fought people who  
used no rules before. You've had to fight for your life. Tomorrow you  
may well have to do it again. You hear Bonnie. she's going to be  
looking to break people. Time to grow up. Because if you fight clean  
out there tomorrow, you're putting the whole team in jeopardy."  
  
Ranma gaped at the verbal assault. Then he nodded.  
  
Akane continued. "Get a good night's sleep. Then tomorrow,  
you'd better be ready to show that bitch the error of her ways."  
Without even waiting, she turned and stalked out of the room, leaving  
a stunned Ranma in her wake.  
  
Ranma stared at the door, in disbelief, then he fell back to  
considering Akane's words. She was right, he had gotten too used to  
the rules and the honorable conduct of the Street Fighter circuit.  
  
It was all well and good to play by the rules, but if you're  
opponent broke them first, you had to pay them back in coin of the  
kind. Not to hurt them, but to beat them. That was what mattered. That  
you won, your opponents lost, and those you cared about were unhurt.  
  
He tried to remember one of the early lessons Genma had taught  
him. His father's voice came in clear and strong. "Anger can be a  
useful force, as long as it is focused. If the anger controls the  
fighter, instead of the fighter controlling the anger, he is no longer  
a martial artist. His punches and kicks lack control."  
  
Ranma took a deep breath, tried to get all the anger into one  
place, and went to work on controlling it letting the anger work for  
him, instead of vice versa.  
  
The next morning, Ranma woke Akane up, and the two headed over  
to the arena where the fights were to take place, early. Ranma wanted  
to see the place where he would be fighting. He seemed well at ease,  
like the previous day hadn't happened. The two settled down to wait,  
talking about nothing much in particular.  
  
Back at the hotel, another person's wait was coming to an end,  
but his thoughts were far less peaceful. Dark, cold eyes scanned the  
door, searching for his targets. His employer's instructions were very  
detailed. If he saw either of the two people he had seen in pictures,  
his job was to take them out. Not kill them, but the option he  
preferred, cripple them. He cursed the traffic that morning. He had  
gotten here 20 minutes later then he planned.  
  
He smiled as he saw the team inside get up and start to file  
out for the van. His smile quickly faded when he realized his two  
targets were not there. "Damm, the two must have left early," he  
thought to himself. His employer wasn't very tolerant, and would  
probably turn him into the hunted instead of the hunter by putting a  
price on HIS head if he   
went back to her now and reported failure.  
  
He scanned the team. Well, he thought to himself, at least I  
can do something to report, that I can report to her as a success.  
Silently, he inched forward to the corner of the motel. He'd take the  
first one that came out of the building, and give the advantage to his  
employer that way. She'd appreciate that at least. He reached into his  
vest, and slipped on the metal fanged claw he used as his weapon.  
  
As the first person stepped out and took a step towards the  
waiting limo, he popped out and charged the heavy-set boxer. Taking  
five quick steps, sprinting towards the man like a leopard in flight,  
he got to within two steps of him, as the boxer turned, he had sensed  
that SOMETHING was wrong, but by then it was far too late.  
  
The man leaped forward, spinning in mid air, hands grabbing  
the boxer by the hair, the metal claw gouging several bloody furrows  
into the man's cheek. As he flipped over , he threw his body forward,  
and heaved the boxer over his head. Finishing hiss move by rolling to  
his feet, he watched the man fly right into and through the  
windshield of the limo.   
  
The Spanish ninja smiled. The injuries should be enough to  
keep this one out of the fight, he thought to himself as he heard the  
first startled shouts from behind him, as he started running, hoping  
to lose himself in the crowd. Neither Bonnie Brown, nor his true  
master, the World Warrior Vega, would be totally satisfied, but he had  
done his best.  
  
Lei Chong Ling and Todd Vanderstreet took off in pursuit of  
Vernon McCracken's assailant. Ian and Igor ran over to the limo and  
tried to staunch the blood that was streaming from the many cuts and  
scratches on the boxer's face and scalp.  
  
The Spanish Ninja noted that he had pursuit, and ducked into  
an alleyway, noting possible escape routes, using the few seconds the  
sudden turn had given him to try to find a place where he could escape  
pursuit. Finally, he saw a fire escape ladder about 12 feet off the  
ground. Tensing his leg muscles, he sprang into the air, somersaulting  
several times, and catching the bar of the ladder in both hands.  
  
As quietly as possible, he swung himself up to the fire escape  
proper, and was out of sight before Ling and Vanderstreet could catch  
up with him.  
  
Two hours later, "Backhand" Bonnie Brown, (who had a habit of  
breaking the bones of anyone who was foolhardy enough to refer to her  
by her nickname) cursed to herself. The fool was supposed to take the  
kid and that bitch out!   
  
Then she composed herself and smiling, turning to Mustafa,  
said, "Well, at least we got one advantage. One of my sources tell me  
that Venton McCracken was admitted an hour and twenty minutes ago,  
suffering from multiple lacerations, and a pretty serious concussion.  
He won't be fighting. And there's no sign of those two teenagers  
either. Looks like we'll be fighting five on two!"  
  
Mustafa, as he usually did, took the information without  
blinking. Brown shivered slightly. For all people knew, the Thai  
Kickboxer wasn't born, he was chiseled out of ice. For the longest  
time, he was only happy when he was breaking somebody's bones. Now he  
smiled more, because he now got paid to figure out how best to cause  
pain and agony.  
  
Brown was mad at the fact that the two who had embarrassed her  
the day before hadn't gotten hurt yet. But she had learned patience.  
She chuckled to herself. The two were probably a couple of countries  
away by now, she thought to herself with a wicked smile on her face.   
  
They could run, but sooner or later, she'd find them, or she'd  
hire somebody to find them. Then they'd pay. "Nobody, and I mean  
Nobody, crosses the Lightning Fists OR Bonnie Brown." She said,  
quietly enough that only her teammate could hear.  
  
Mustafa smiled. He hoped that he was the one who found them.  
There were so many bones, and so many ways to break them. Then when he  
was through, he'd try out some of his new poisons on them. There would  
be so many interesting ways he could kill them. He smiled again,  
considering the possibilities.  
  
The team showed up at the stadium and quickly found Ranma and  
Akane, who hopped over the barrier and quickly joined them. One look  
at the tight set frowns on their faces, plus the fact that one of them  
was missing, told Akane all she needed to know. She only asked a  
one-word question, directed at Ian. "Who?"  
  
Ian replied, "We think it was a hired hit man, probably from  
our opponents. Whoever it was, it was Shadoloo based. Only Shadoloo  
fighters use a claw like Vega."  
  
Akane had a thousand more questions, like who this Shadoloo  
was, and how they could extract vengeance for their injured teammate,  
but there was no time. She had to do SOMETHING.  
  
Fans had started to file in. Nakajima Productions headed to  
their dressing room, all preparing to wreak vengeance for their  
friend.  
  
Ian and Akane had disappeared, but Ranma had no time to  
consider where they had gone. Lei Chong Ling, who seemed to be the  
most experienced fighter, had stood up and started pacing quietly  
around the room. Ranma went through a mental exercise to calm himself  
down, (which he sorely needed to calm himself down after he heard what  
had happened), and waited for the team captain to speak.  
  
When Lei spoke, it was quietly, but with great force. "Ok, my  
friends, we are in quite a bit of trouble. They have us outnumbered,  
and probably have planned their strategy already, knowing we're hurt.  
We have to come up with something, and quick."  
  
The team spent the next couple of minutes planning strategy.  
Finally, they decided that even though the attack plan had been  
designed for a full complement of fighters, they had no choice but to  
attack straight ahead. "Remember," Lei reminded everybody, "They have  
an extra fighter. WATCH YOUR BACKS."  
  
It was time. Each fighter slowly stood up, lost in their own  
thoughts, and preparing mentally for what could be the fight of their  
lives, they slowly filed out of the locker room, and strode out into  
the harsh light. The crowd swelled in anticipation, it was about time.  
Then several voices murmured in confusion as they only saw four  
members of the Nakajima Productions team.  
  
But then the confusion was replaced by a roar from the crowd  
as the Lightning Fists stalked on to the field, and slowly walked over  
to the boundary of the fighting area. Ranma's eyes were glued to  
Bonnie Brown, and Ranma had to stop himself from muttering several  
curses.  
  
Bonnie had a vicious smile on his face. "So, kid, you got more  
guts then I thought. Too bad I'm going to have to spill those guts  
now," she called, her voice carrying over to the other side. "Heard  
your boxing friend had a little accident, ain't that a shame? Guess  
we'll have to beat you five on four." Suddenly a voice from behind  
Ranma answered Brown's words, and made everybody turn and gape.   
  
"Guess again, bitch. This is going to be five on five." came  
from Akane, now clad in her fighting gi, and stepping forward on the  
pitch. When she had found out that they had hurt Vernon, she realized  
that she would have to fight for her teammates, even if she wasn't  
ready yet. She wasn't going to let her team get hurt, and she wasn't  
going to let this bitch get the satisfaction of winning the match.  
  
Ranma wanted to run, to tell Akane that this wasn't her fight.  
But he stopped. He wasn't going to make her decisions for her. Plus  
the look of complete and utter frustration on The Queen Bitch's face  
(his new nickname for Bonnie Brown) He called back, "I guess it's a  
fair fight now. Shall we do it?"  
  
A voice over the loud speaker carried to the 5,000 fans who  
had learned about the fight and paid a high fee to get in. "Ladies and  
Gentlemen, these are the rules for the team fight. Each team has five  
fighters, and a team will only be eliminated when all five fighters  
are out of the fight. A fighter will be judged out of the fight if  
they are knocked out, or are knocked off the fighting area, (which was  
marked as a red square on the soccer field) and they do not return  
within 45 seconds. Fighters, to your places!"  
  
  
Ranma walked to his team's corner. He spared enough time to  
look at Akane, her jaw set, her eyes upon her opponents. He smiled.  
The team was all together now. Five people with a mission. To defeat  
the Lightning Fists. And may the fates have mercy, on the Lightning  
Fists, because Nakajima Productions weren't going to.  
  
"FIGHT!" came the voice from the loudspeakers, as the crowd  
roared. Ranma tuned out the voice and the crowd, and slowly advanced  
with his team.  
  
The Lightning Fists had no such restraint, they came charging  
out quickly. Fixer threw a whirling kick at Igor who blocked it with  
one of his fists, while Mustafa seemed to have Akane singled out. Todd  
wasn't able to break free, as they had planned as he had to dodge the  
hammering punches  
and slaps from the Sumo of the Lightning Fists, Santo Hidetoshi.  
  
Hercules Harrison slowly stalked Lei Chong Ling. That left two  
fighters who wanted to fight each other more then anything.  
  
Ranma set himself as Bonnie Brown came into striking range.  
Hoping to unnerve the younger fighter, Brown started whirling around,  
throwing high roundhouse kicks, combining with low foot sweeps, trying  
to catch Ranma off guard, but Ranma easily ducked the high kicks, and  
leaped over the foot sweeps, resetting himself in the guard position.  
He gave a short laugh of derision, as if he had no respect for her  
fighting abilities.  
  
Ranma faked a left-hand punch, and watched Brown over-react to  
the fake, Ranma delivered a kick that sent the Special Forces trained  
Brown to the ground. "Not so tough now that you can't get your cheap  
shot in, huh?"  
  
  
Brown took a couple steps back from the impact of the kick.  
Ok, the kid wanted to try to humiliate her? "Nice try kid, but you're  
gonna have to do better then that." she  
leaped into the air, throwing her foot around in a roundhouse blow,  
which Ranma dodged easily, side stepping the kick but Brown had her  
own plans. She had reached into a pouch on her belt, grabbed a white  
powder, and turning from the landing, she heaved it in Ranma's face.  
  
Ranma screamed in pain as the substance made his eyes water.  
Brown laughed. "Never should've shown me up kid, first you and then  
the bitch are gonna get it." Ranma's eyes watered as he tried to  
defend himself from the measured blows Brown was laying in, but each  
time one landed, he groaned in pain. It was hard to see where a punch  
was coming from when his eyes were watering!  
  
Akane ducked under a vicious kick by Mustafa, and landed a  
couple punches of her own, but Mustafa showed no expression. He  
knocked back Akane with a side kick, but while Akane was recovering,  
hit Todd Vanderstreet with a kick to the back of his head., that Todd  
couldn't have seen. sending the Karate fighter sprawling forward  
unconscious from the blow.  
  
Akane swallowed nervously as she saw the grim smile on  
Mustafa's face, as the crowd roared. First blood to the Lightning  
Fists.   
  
But the odds were evened quickly, Lei Chong Ling charged  
Harrison leaped, actually used Harrison as a base to leap from and  
kicked him twice to the face with a leaping kick. The force of blow  
knocked Harrison down, and as he  
tried to get to his feet, Lei kicked his arms out from supporting him,  
and laid in several vicious elbows and forearms to the back and head  
of Harrison, who was soon rendered unconscious. But his victory was  
short lived, as Santo grabbed him from behind in a punishing sumo bear  
hug.  
  
Fixer spun through with a Double Dread Kick, first a sidekick  
drove his Sanbo fighter opponent back, and then he whirled in the  
opposite direction with another kick, stunning him temporarily. But he  
made a  
mistake. He hadn't gone far enough away to get out of the reach of the  
Sanbo fighter, and that was the moment the big Russian waited for.  
  
Igor grabbed Fixer by the throat, lifted him off the ground  
and threw him a good 25 feet, but the canny veteran kickboxer,  
minimized the impact and rolled through the landing.  
  
Mustafa smiled. Several kicks had left Akane reeling, blood  
pouring from her nose. One more kick should do it. Bonnie would be  
pleased. He raised a hand to the crowd, who roared in anticipation,  
and prepared to hit a dazed Akane with an ax kick that would surely  
render her unconscious.  
  
As the foot came down, Akane raised both her hand above her  
head and neatly caught the foot on her shoulder, minimizing the  
impact. Before the gaping Mustafa could extricate his foot, Akane  
smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. From this position, it was easy to  
throw a snap kick. "Payback's a bitch", she said, and threw the kick  
where it would hurt the most.  
  
Mustafa screamed in pain as the entire crowd that was watching  
winced in sympathy. Mustafa went down, tears streaming in pain, hands  
holding his injured groin. Akane stood over him. "Since I can't do  
that to your leader, I guess you'll do. If you or any other person of  
that goon squad ever do that to Ranma or any of my teammates ever  
again, next time I won't kick them. I'll rip them off." And with that,  
she laid him out with a palm blow to the temple.   
  
Jensen had grabbed Fixer in a sleeper hold, cutting off the  
supply of oxygen to the brain, Fixer tried to fight out, but his blows  
had no offense behind them. As he was blacking out, a last, desperate  
offense came to him. He let himself fall, dragging Jensen with him.  
Fixer's head jammed right underneath the chin of the bigger Jensen,  
and Jensen fell back to the ground, unconscious. Fixer tried to move,  
but he could only lay there, gasping for air and oxygen.   
  
The crowd murmured as the announcement that Fixer was judged  
out of the fight. It was rare to see a double KO like that, but now  
Nakajima Productions had lost two fighters, while the Lightning Fists  
had lost 3. The Electronic Scoreboard read  
  
Nakajima Productions 3  
(Ranma Saotome, Akane Tendo, Lei Chong Ling)  
  
Lightning Fists 2  
(Bonnie Brown, Santo Hideoshi)  
  
Brown had knocked down Ranma with a foot sweep that he  
couldn't see due to his eyes. And she was laying in vicious kicks to  
the stomach. Ranma was able to dodge several kicks that would have  
laid him out as he desperately tried to get his eyes cleared.  
  
Akane looked around at the fight. Her team had the advantage,  
but if that sumo wrestler took out Lei, then it would be even. But  
Ranma was fighting gamely, but Brown was ripping him apart, because he  
couldn't see! After a second, she came up with an idea. She shouted at  
Ranma,  
unknotted the sash that closed her gi, and tossed the sash to his  
outstretched, groping hand. Then she ran over to Santo and her  
teammate.  
  
Lei only had a few seconds of consciousness left. His ribs  
felt like they were on fire, and although he continued to struggle,  
part of his mind realized that there was no escape. Then he heard a  
cry from Akane, who was charging. He immediately curled up as best as  
he could inside the hold, ducking, as Akane leaped into the air, and  
landed a kick to Santo's face. Stunned, the sumo fighter let go of the  
bear hug he had on and took two steps back. Lei took a deep breath,  
focused his will has best as he could, and dashed forward with a  
series of Rekka Ken punches.  
  
Santo tried to block them but the blows just came in to fast  
for him to block effectively. As the third and final punch landed  
right on the temple, Santo fell back, and fell flat, as Lei howled in  
victory. The big sumo wrestler had been taken down.  
  
  
  
Ranma had used the sash to clear his eyes enough to see, and  
Brown, realizing her predicament distanced herself from her three  
remaining fighters, cursing as she looked around to see if she had any  
support, and eyes widening, realized it was just her left.  
  
Akane stood behind Ranma, (not wanting him to see her without  
her gi and get distracted). Both stood on guard. Brown realized that  
she could only do one thing. Attack. She charged both her remaining  
opponents.  
  
Ranma calmed himself, and set himself right in Brown's path,  
trying to judge the perfect moment to strike, focusing his spirit.  
Then it was time.   
  
"TENSHIN AMAGURI KEN!" As he yelled, his spirit blazed, and  
his blurred hands actually glowed with the force of the strike. Brown  
could not stop in time and literally ran into the punches. She flew  
back, flipping end over end from the sheer force of Ranma's punches,  
finally ending up twitching on the ground a good 10 yards away.  
  
The crowd in stands were going crazy with applause. Some of  
the male members of the crowd whistled appreciatively at Akane. Ranma  
turned to see what the whistling was about, and nearly was bowled over  
by a bear hug by Akane, who was yelling "We Did IT! WE BEAT THEM!"  
  
Ranma accepted the hug for a moment, then realized the state  
Akane was in and staggered back, nose bleeding as he realized Akane  
was missing her top. Akane remembered what had happened, and she  
blushed fully, at least Ranma thought she was having a full body  
blush, considering the parts of her he COULD see! She quickly  
retrieved her gi, and slid it back on and redid the sash when a  
blushing Ranma handed it back to her.  
  
Ian hopped the railing, and the team helped Igor and Todd to  
their feet, and to the chants from the crowd, the victorious fighters  
raised their hands to the  
crowd, as doctors and technicians checked over the Lightening Fists to  
make sure they were in no immediate life-threatening danger.  
  
The victorious fighters, waved to the crowd as they sat in the  
winner's box, to watch the final fight of the five of the evening.  
This was the World Warrior between Balrog and Fei Long.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen, our final match of the evening is a  
World Warrior fight. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to FISTS OF FURY!"  
came the now familiar voice from the loudspeaker. "First of all, he is  
a practitioner of Wing Chun Kung Fu. He has a record of 69 wins, with  
only two losses, one draw, and 58 of those wins were by knockout, the  
Hong Kong movie star, The Jade Dragon, FEI LONG!"  
  
The crowd applauded, the recovering Lei Chong Ling applauding  
as he studied his fellow Kung Fu martial artist, trying to learn from  
watching. He had a friendly bet with Vernon, since they both shared a  
style with one of the World Warriors in the fight.  
  
"And his opponent, hails from the United States of America.  
He's a former united Heavyweight Champion Boxer of the World. He comes  
into tonight's fight with a record of 128-6 -3,with 118 by Knockout.  
Fists of Steel, the master of the Dashing Punch, BALROG!"  
  
The two briefly acknowledged the cheers of the crowd, but it  
was obvious that they were intent on the fight. There were no rules in  
this one, either they'd fight until they were both too tired to  
continue, or until one was knocked out.  
  
As the two clashed, Ranma turned to Akane. "Thanks for the  
loan of the sash to clean my eyes. Sorry about the way it left you."  
Akane blushed, but then smiled.  
  
Akane giggled, remembering the look on Ranma's face when he  
realized she didn't have her gi top on. "That's ok. I'm just glad we  
won, we got revenge for what they had done to Vernon and to you, and  
we both made it through." She blushed, deeply this time and whispered,  
"Did you like the look, Ranma?"   
  
Ranma suffered another nosebleed as he realized that Akane  
didn't mind that he had taken a peek. He thought to himself, "So much  
has changed since the first time I accidentally walked in on her.", he  
then recovered a little of his bravado and told Akane, "Just as long  
as next time you try to get me to take a peek at you, it's not in  
public."  
  
Akane ALMOST summoned Mallet-sama at that remark, who said  
that she WANTED him to look at her, then sighed. I guess he really  
does think me uncute, she thought to herself. But then again, he HAD  
taken more then a peek when he noticed. She shook her head, not  
knowing if she was happy or mad that he had looked, then looked back  
at the fight. Uncomfortable, Ranma turned back to the fight.  
  
Fei Long had Balrog dazed, and apparently wished to finish the  
fight, had leaped in the air, and summoned his chi and as his leg  
actually burst into fire, hit Balrog with a screaming Dragon Kick that  
sent the Boxer flying back, unconscious. The crowd erupted.  
  
A few days later, a bruised and battered Bonnie Brown appeared  
in front of her Master. Bonnie had once swore that she would never bow  
down to anybody, but she was terrified out of her mind at what this  
person could do. "I beg forgiveness. I wish to kill those two, to try  
to make up for my failure."  
  
A throaty chuckle came from the man sitting on the chair. "No,  
my dear, you did exactly right. I was the one who told your manager to  
sign this fight. I needed to see if Vega's reports were correct. He  
was. Consider the loss erased from my mind. Go and serve us well. We  
have a shipment going to Thailand tonight. You and the rest of the  
Lightning Fists are to guard it. And one last thing. We have OTHER  
plans for the two of them. Do not take any retribution."  
  
As Bonnie Brown saluted her Master, and quietly fled his inner  
sanctum, she felt like she was the luckiest woman on the face of the  
earth. People who tended to disappoint her Master were either killed,  
or if they were unlucky, faced a fate that was probably worse then  
death. But she whispered to herself, "It's not over. Someday, some  
way,  
the Lightning Fists will get their revenge. Whatever Bison has planned  
for you, I hope it hurts you."  
  
M. Bison stood up, calmly walked over to a view screen, and  
pressed a single button. "Get me Vega", was all he said. Almost  
immediately, the handsome Spanish Ninja's face filled the screen.   
  
Vega never liked to be summoned so pre-emptorily by Bison, but  
he knew Bison would never call him unless he needed something. "Yes,  
Lord Bison?"  
  
"I am pleased. Your reports of the fighter Saotome were right  
on mark. He would be a welcome addition to Shadoloo. Continue to watch  
him, we will prepare a strike when the time is right"  
  
"I hear and obey, Lord Bison." replied the Spanish Ninja, as  
he broke the connection.  
  
M. Bison sat on his throne. Studying a map of the world, and  
the forces of Shadaloo that occupied its criminal underworld. It's all  
a game of human chess, you just have to know how all the pieces moved,  
he thought to himself.   
  
He considered the moves he was now taking. As always, there  
were risks, but risks needed to be taken to make the prize worthwhile.  
He had just advanced another pawn in his schemes.  
  
Bison laughed quietly, "Soon enough, Ranma Saotome, you will  
become another pawn in my games. Welcome to Hell, I hope you will  
enjoy the ride." The chuckle became a loud laugh. that continued on  
through the night. 


	6. Home Again: Part 1, Decisions, Decisions

The month after Nakajima Productions victory over the  
Lightning Fists was some of the most hectic times in Ranma and Akane's  
life. Not only did the underground press want interviews with one of  
the hottest teams in the world of Street Fighting, but several  
mainstream magazines sent reporters to try to get Akane and Ranma to  
tell more about their respective schools of Anything Goes Martial  
Arts. Akane didn't get a swelled head, but did as many interviews as  
she could stand; figuring it was good publicity for her father and Mr.  
Saotome's dojo.  
  
However, the normally ebullient Ranma didn't feel the same  
way. If he saw any reporters coming to him, he would immediately look  
for a way out, leaving before he could be asked for an interview. The  
rest of the team was puzzled by this behavior, but as a sort of  
unspoken pledge; no one mentioned Ranma's curse, figuring if anyone  
was going to tell the press, it would be him.  
  
Akane had figured she would miss her family so much while she  
was away, and she did, but she had a life line to home. Every second  
or third day, a quick note would arrive from her sisters and her  
father. She would spend a few hours reading and re-reading the note,  
catching up on all the small details of what was going on back in  
Nerima. She had to chuckle, going over the latest letters from home  
again, sitting on the bed in her hotel room  
  
Nabiki had enclosed a note that Kuno had spent the first two months  
protesting about how the "evil accursed sorcerer Saotome" had taken  
away both loves of his life, Akane Tendo, and the mysterious  
pig-tailed girl. However, Kuno had spoken one too many times about  
Ranma, in the wrong person's hearing. It seems that during one of his  
soliloquies on the evilness of Ranma, Shampoo had taken umbrage at one  
of his more detailed descriptions and tried to smash Kuno with one of  
her bonbori. This had led to a big fight, which devastated about two  
blocks of downtown Nerima.  
  
To everyone's great surprise, Kuno had won the fight. Shampoo now had  
to figure out how she was to marry both Ranma and Kuno, and Cologne  
had thrown up her hands in horror when she realized the pickle this  
put her in. Cologne and Shampoo spent the next week trying to worm out  
how long Ranma and Akane would be out on the circuit. Failing to get  
an answer from even the ever-helpful Kasumi. Cologne had packed up the  
Nekohanten, as well as Shampoo and a still protesting Kuno (even  
though she had used some kind of Amazon neck pinch to turn off Kuno's  
vocal cords, to everyone's great relief) and hadn't been seen for  
weeks.  
  
As Akane finished the letter, she sat back, and started thinking about  
Ranma's recent behavior. She wished she knew what was wrong with him.  
Although not particularly acting like the engaged to be married couple  
their parents wanted them to act like, the two were friends, and  
something was definitely bothering him. During a normal three-hour  
sparring session, Akane would count herself lucky to get three or four  
touches in. However, lately, she would land three or four times that  
many moves. Ranma tried to half-heartedly convince her that it was  
because she was improving, but Akane knew better. A lot of the moves  
were basic moves that Ranma should have blocked easily.  
  
She was brought out of her thoughts by a polite knock at the door. She  
stood up walked over to the door, opened it. Alex, the team  
chauffeur, go-fer, personal assistant, and in Akane's estimation, the  
backbone of the team, stood waiting. She smiled, Alex was a good  
friend to all the fighters, and he had saved them when he was able to  
get Akane her fighting gi in time to replace Venton McCracken for the  
fight against the Lightning Fists.  
  
"Hey Akane, I just got some good news from Mr. Nakajima. I thought I'd  
come up and tell you first, so Vanderstreet doesn't take the  
initiative and invite himself up to your room to tell you the good  
news." Akane winced to herself slightly. It seemed that Todd  
Vanderstreet found her to be "exotically charming" and spent his time  
trying to charm/seduce her. It wasn't bad enough yet to make her think  
about getting rid of him with mallet-sama, but still, it was annoying.  
  
  
"Mr. Nakajima's going to call everybody together later today. We  
signed a contract to headline a card back in Osaka. Solo fights, but  
it means big money for the team. We thought you'd be especially happy  
because you can go visit your family while we're there." Alex  
explained. Akane bounced off the bed and hugged Alex excitedly,  
causing the chauffeur profound embarrassment. Akane broke the hug with  
a blush, but her excitement was still palpable. "When do we leave for  
Osaka?" Alex consulted a travel itinerary he had brought with him,  
expecting this very same question. "Well, we're setting it up now, but  
I think we'll leave in two weeks, and we'll spend a month over there  
promoting the fight card."  
  
Akane grinned, "Does Ranma know yet?" He would definitely be  
surprised, she thought to herself. Alex's face dropped a little. He  
had been present for most of the recent sparring sessions, and Ranma's  
lackluster performance worried him. He hadn't said anything to Mr.  
Nakajima yet, hoping that Akane would figure a way to get him back to  
one hundred percent. "Last I saw him, he had just ducked out of an  
interview, and was heading up the roof I think. Maybe you ought to  
tell him yourself, Akane"  
  
The two made small talk for the next few minutes, but Alex left to go  
tell the rest of the team, and Akane decided to hunt down Ranma and  
tell him personally. She headed up to the hotel's roof, blinking  
slightly as the bright sun blazed high above. Ranma sat on a wall in  
the center, looking out from the roof onto the sea.  
  
Akane walked up next to Ranma, and the two spent a couple minutes  
looking out, listening to the sounds of traffic far below. After  
several minutes, Ranma finally spoke, in a quiet voice. "Hi Akane."  
Was all he said, not even turning, eyes locked in on the horizon.  
  
"Hi Ranma. You ok?" she asked, just as quietly.  
  
Ranma sighed quietly, looking down at his feet for a few seconds,  
before looking out again at the horizon. "Nah, just an old problem  
that has been getting worse recently." Akane thought she knew what was  
bothering him, and his next few sentences confirmed it. "I wonder if  
someone's going to read these interviews they want me to do and tell  
my mom about me."  
  
His voice never rose in pitch, but his voice carried an intensity  
Akane didn't usually hear. "I know Pop was right, about making me  
promise never to tell my mom about what happened until we found a cure  
for the Jusenkyo curse, but ever since I was young, I haven't really  
had a mother. I was always on training trips with Pop, learning more  
moves, there was something driving me. My mom understood that, made me  
promise to be a "man among men". I don't know how'd she react if she  
met me now, but I don't think I'll have that chance for a while. For  
all Pop and I know, there is no cure. What am I supposed to do then,  
never see my mom unless I'm Ranko again? Sometimes I wonder if it  
would be worth the chance of her following up on our promise to commit  
seppuku, just to know I could talk to my mom again.  
  
A plan crystallized in Akane's mind at Ranma's words. It was risky,  
with a chance of catastrophic failure. If it did fail, well, she  
guessed Ranma would never speak to her again. But still, an effort had  
to be made. She had to deal with the here and now first, however. "I  
understand, Ranma. But right now, we need you to be one hundred  
percent. Alex just told me we have a fight in Osaka scheduled, we'll  
be able to spend a month at home, and we'll figure a way to do this.  
Maybe we should ask Nabiki, she's always got good plans."  
  
Ranma couldn't help grinning, "Yeah.. good plans to fleece somebody  
out of money."  
  
The two spent another half an hour talking, before Akane  
excused herself to call home and tell them the good news. Even though  
it was an international call, Akane didn't begrudge the cost. Her  
share of the team's prize money had left her moderately wealthy, and  
not being one to shop, she had saved most of it. It was time to spend  
a little.  
  
Nabiki answered the phone, and gleefully told everybody the  
news (the cheers were loud enough to be heard over the phone, she  
noticed.) She talked with her family for a few minutes, then asked for  
Nabiki, she had a favor to ask. When Nabiki returned, she asked Nabiki  
to make sure no one else was within listening distance, then spoke  
quietly. "Nabiki, I need you to get me something, and I need it kept  
quiet. It's a surprise for Ranma when he gets home..." She quickly  
detailed what she would need, and she could almost SEE the grin  
forming on Nabiki's face as she got the idea.  
  
"Right, Akane, will do. Although I wish Ranma knew, I hear  
he's getting rich, and I don't charge family members." The two shared  
a chuckle as Nabiki said her good-byes and taking the stairs two at a  
time, headed up to her room, a big smile on her face. Akane-chan was  
up front and honest usually, but she had to have been watching Nabiki  
at work, this plan was GOOD. Meanwhile, Akane replaced the receiver,  
went to sit back on her bed, and chuckled softly. "Ranma Saotome, for  
once in your life, you're the one who's going to owe ME a favor. The  
look on your eyes will be worth it." She sat back to think on how to  
best pull this plan off.  
  
The team continued to spar over the next two weeks, but there  
was a definite undercurrent of excitement underneath the everyday  
work. Punches were thrown with a little more intensity, the kicks were  
just that little bit crisper, and Ranma, while not back to his usual  
carefree self, was back close to his old level. He returned to his  
form in the sparring sessions against Akane, but somehow Akane didn't  
mind. She would rather learn more by fighting a Ranma at near one  
hundred percent, then get a temporary ego boost by fighting a less  
interested Ranma  
  
The two weeks passed rather quickly, and soon enough, the team  
was packing for the flight to Osaka. Mr. Tendo and Mr. Saotome had  
decided to offer the dojo as a practice ground, and Ranma and Akane  
pitched in some of their money to reserve several rooms for the team,  
as hosts. Soon enough, it was time to leave, and as Ranma and Akane  
chatted quietly, a sense of deja vu struck Akane. Just a couple months  
ago, they were flying off into an unknown future. Now once again,  
although Ranma didn't know it, great changes were in store. She  
grinned; the telegram from Nabiki had arrived just an hour before the  
team left. It read...  
  
We'll meet you at the airport. You'll find that request in  
your room Akane. You know the place.  
  
Nabiki  
  
Ranma wondered what "that request" meant, and Akane had to  
stifle a giggle and told him he'd have to wait to find out. Akane knew  
that Ranma HATED mysteries, which was just a bonus. Even if he got  
curious and tried to find where Nabiki had stashed the information  
that Akane had requested, he could tear apart the whole room and not  
find it. There was a loose floorboard in Akane's room. The two sisters  
would leave secret notes for each other in there, without the fear of  
other people reading it. After she got the information, however, it  
was all up to her.  
  
Ranma tried to stay happy, for Akane's sake, which wasn't too  
hard at times, but sometimes his thoughts would drift. For many years,  
Pop had taken him out on the road on training trips here and there. He  
didn't particularly think bad of it, mind you, he thought that's how  
EVERYBODY did things. He was never in one place long enough to have an  
attachment, it was just himself and Pop versus the world.  
  
But that had changed in the year or so that he had been at the  
Tendo dojo. He had missed the place, Kasumi's quiet strength, watching  
Mr. Tendo and Pop cheat like mad at shogi, (and then deny that they  
had, of course) even razzing Akane about her cooking. He was looking  
forward to going home. His mind immediately seized on that thought.  
The Tendo Dojo WAS home, and he was looking forward to it. Now if he  
could just get his Pop to figure a way to reconcile with Mom, it'd be  
perfect.  
  
As his mind worked through his recent experiences, he wondered  
why that it had took him so long to MISS his new home. He guessed it  
was because he wasn't alone, he had someone with the same connection  
in Akane. The two had developed a fast friendship, based on a few  
common experiences, and a common goal, to be the best heir they could  
be for their school of Anything Goes Martial Arts.  
  
That's not all, admit it, you care for her, came the rogue  
thought. Ranma braced himself, usually around that time, he would do  
or say something just to prove he DIDN'T care, well, then out came the  
mallet and he either ran away at high speed, or he FLEW away at high  
speed. That would be rather inconvenient 30,000 feet up and over the  
ocean. Ranma adjusted his seat belt, sat back in his seat and closed  
his eyes and tried to work through his feelings.  
  
He DID care for Akane, he just hated being pushed into an  
engagement he hadn't wanted, that he wasn't READY for. If their  
meddling fathers just had INTRODUCED them, and maybe let the two of  
them work it out, they would have a better chance. Now, they had to  
wonder if the other one was "caring" for them only to appease their  
fathers. But he still cared for Uc-chan, but somewhat differently.  
Uc-chan was a rock in his world, someone you knew you could count on  
to have beside you when trouble threatened, that would be there when  
you need it. But he didn't know if that meant he loved her.  
  
He thought of Akane's shy smile, and of her tremendous  
dedication to her training. She had pushed him past limits he thought  
were unbreakable. He never wanted to teach before; it seemed, so,  
well, BORING. He'd rather be where the action is, after all. But he  
enjoyed the sessions greatly; there was something that felt really  
good when Akane mastered a new move. And the few times where he had  
surprised HIM, well, it had pushed him to a new level. He looked at  
Akane, saw the grin on her face, as she studied him, and jokingly  
asked, "And what's put that grin on your face, Akane?"  
  
Akane's grin broadened. "Oh, just thinking about surprises,  
Ranma-sensei, I bet the future of Nakajima Productions contain many  
such surprises." And she couldn't stop a giggle from escaping. Yes,  
Ranma, she thought to herself. The future DOES contain many surprises.  
And there's a real big one headed for you shortly. 


End file.
